The Book of Felix
by TheRegionsLegends
Summary: Felix is a young yet genius Sinnoan breeder who spent his childhood with Pokémon and textbooks instead of humans his age. Now that he's on his Pokémon journey, however, he's finding that the world is a lot bigger- and a lot scarier- than a Pokémon ranch in Floaroma Town. At least Team Plasma's trying to make a difference, and Felix is all too happy to help them...
1. Victini's Luck

Felix Verity finished combing back the rest of his black hair in the bathroom mirror, the normally untamable mess of fluff brought into submission with careful application of water and gel. Beside him, his mother brushed out the last few knots in Cascade's tails with a wire brush. The Buizel occasionally winced as a particularly matted knot was pulled out, but he obediently kept still. After all, not a hair could be out of place if they were to have any chance with the Kanto Elite Four.

"Sometimes I wish I didn't have so much fur," Cascade muttered, rubbing his completed tail with a paw. "It took you less than five minutes to get your hair fixed up but I've been here almost half an hour."

"I can arrange that," Felix replied in the Buizel tongue, green eyes twinkling with mischief.

"What, you'll shave me down? Somehow I doubt that."

"Try me!"

"What are you two going on about now?" Sylvia Verity chuckled. She always got a kick at listening to her son say "Buizel zel buizel" and have himself be understood by his Pokémon and closest friend.

"Cascade wants to try shaving all his fur off," Felix lied.

"Really?" his mother replied, reaching for an electric haircutter.

"H-hey, he's just joking, really!" Cascade stammered, stepping back. Felix laughed.

"Oh, I'm just teasing!" She set the haircutter down. "You like your fur, don't you?" Sylvia scratched the little otter's head as he nodded.

"I like it too," Felix scratched his Buizel beneath his flotation collar with one hand while checking his Pokétch on the other. "Five more minutes…" he muttered anxiously.

"It's a good thing I've finished, then." Sylvia gave a final brush with a flourish. "How do you properly care for a Rapidash caught in the rain?"

"Get it dry with a flame-retardant blanket and feed it high-carb foods for quick energy, ideally sugar cubes or grain-based Pokémon food," Felix replied automatically, quoting a textbook. "It should be warm but not sweltering; a Fire-type has its own fire for a reason. Don't attempt to feed the flames on its mane with kindling-a Rapidash produces all its own fuel internally."

His mother gave Felix a tight hug. "You've grown up too fast, my little boy. Don't you worry for a second!"

"I'm not worried, Mom," Felix insisted, pulling away. "But I do have to get going!"

"Wait!" Sylvia stopped her son, reaching for the green bandana that marked him as a Sinnoh Breeder. With a short thanks Felix tied the bandana around his head and posed dramatically, to Sylvia's amusement.

"Tell me how it goes!" Sylvia said as Felix dashed out of the bathroom, Cascade close behind.

The teenage prodigy entered his room and shut the door, scrolling through the apps on his Pokétch until he activated the built in Holocaster. Promptly at five p.m. he received an invitation to a video call, which he accepted without delay. A blue holographic projection of a screen was cast from the watch, showing video feed of Lorelei, Bruno, Agatha, and Lance, and in turn presented Felix and Cascade to the Elite Four .

"Hello, Felix!" Bruno said loudly. The brawny man did not wear a shirt and his black, spiky hair was tied back in a ponytail.

"Hello everyone," Felix said, unable to help but grin nervously.

Agatha hummed to herself, analyzing the boy. Her shrewd eyes were set in an elderly face, a clear indication of the wisdom of her age. "How would you care for a sickly Gengar?"

"Let it rest in a dark, humid room. Allow it to siphon the life energy of its trainer and team members, within reason. Peace and quiet are ideal." The words flowed out on their own, without any faltering or delay. All that rote memorization had paid off.

Agatha nodded approvingly but said nothing.

"Why should we trust you with Raphael?" Lorelei said in a reserved voice. Her slender figure was juxtaposed by voluminous orange hair.

"Well, you've read my credentials—"

"Of course we have; we want to hear it from you, boy!" Agatha snapped.

"Yes, of course," Felix nodded quickly. "My name is Felix Verity; I'm a fully certified Pokémon breeder and caretaker, recognized by the National Breeders' Association. I've spent the past several years mastering all forms of Pokémon care, including a full course in the care of each individual Type and a cursory knowledge of specific care for most Pokémon species. Furthermore… I can speak to Pokémon."

" _Any_ Pokémon?" Lance challenged, scratching his spiky red hair.

"Given a couple weeks to learn their language, yes. But I've done my best to expose myself to as many species as possible and I'm familiar with almost all species endemic to Kanto."

"Now isn't that something," Lance replied, grinning. "How about Dragonite?"

Felix chuckled anxiously as the champion produced a tall, bulky dragon from a Pokeball. "It's been a while, so I'm a little rusty. Excuse me, Dragonite, could you say 'The quick red Vulpix jumped over the lazy brown Herdier'?"

Dragonite looked to Lance who nodded. Dragonite proceeded to repeat the phrase in his own language as Felix listened closely.

As the Pokémon finished, Felix replied unsteadily in the same tongue, "How… how is this my speaking?"

The dragon's eyes widened. "Good! But did you mean to say 'How is my speaking'?"

"Yes, thank you," Felix nodded. "I have only did speak with Dragonite a few times before earlier."

Dragonite smiled. "You're doing quite well, especially for a human! Where did you learn to speak to Pokémon in the first place?"

"It has always been an… instinct? Power? Talent! It's always been a talent of mine; I was only born with it, I guess. Since then, whenever I've met a new Pokémon I've done my best to learn their language."

Dragonite chuckled.

Felix tilted his head. "What is funny?"

"You're learning extremely fast. Already your accent is improving and you're stumbling over your words less. I'm just so impressed with you!" In the background the Elite Four watched with rapt attention.

"Oh, I was just rusty at first, that's all," Felix insisted. "It's all coming back to me now. You don't really forget the languages you learn, after all."

"Yes, you do," Lance said, grinning madly.

"I beg your pardon—" Felix began in the Dragonite language before switching to English. "Sorry; what was that, sir?"

"If you don't use a language often, you forget it. That's how it always goes… when did you last talk to a Dragonite?"

"A couple years ago, I think…" Felix recalled. "It was a big event because my parents were commissioned to breed a couple Dragonite and we hardly see Dragonite here in Sinnoh so we were all excited, so I ended up learning the language from them."

"How long did you have to learn?"

"A couple months, but I spent most of my free time talking to that Dragonite… so maybe one hundred hours or so?"

"He's already fluent," Dragonite said.

"I know. I was listening." Lance replied in English.

"You can understand Dragonite too?" Felix exclaimed.

"Of course I can!" Lance laughed. "I'm Dragon-type, you know! But talking back in his language, especially without Dragon typing? That's something special."

"Thank you, sir," Felix gave a quick bow.

"Felix, I want you to convince me that we should choose you and not a professional, more experienced breeder," Lorelei instructed.

"Yes, ma'am. I believe I would be a good fit for him mostly since we're the same age and I have yet to go on my own journey. More than be a tutor, I can be a friend."

"His childhood friend Malcolm Thrones will also accompany Raphael," Lorelei countered.

"I, see…" Felix faltered.

"Do you really think this guy wants a babysitter following him around?" Cascade spoke up.

"That's a good point!" Felix smiled and looked back to Lorelei. "My friend Cascade said he doubts Raphael would want an adult following him around everywhere and telling him what to do; isn't the point of a Pokémon Journey to learn independence and self-reliance? Besides, my only price for this is the opportunity to go on a journey with Raphael at all; a breeder would probably charge a lot over the months it would take to complete Raphael's journey. Furthermore, wouldn't it reflect poorly on you that Raph has his hand held every step of the way? Using me would be a lot more… subtle, you could say."

Lorelei smiled. "Good. I believe you've made a compelling argument. Do the rest of you have any concerns?"

"If Lorelei says you're worth it, then you're worth it," Bruno said with a grin.

"He doesn't look very strong as a sparring partner," Agatha huffed.

"Do you have a better idea? Besides, I bet he'll pick up battling real quick given how well he can communicate with his team," Lance argued.

"If I may speak for myself," Felix interjected, "while I don't battle very often, my use of the Pokémon language keeps me from telegraphing my moves. Raphael will have no way to know what I'll do, making me inherently challenging."

Agatha hesitated, but slowly nodded. "We'll arrange your flight to Kanto shortly. Bring along only what you need for your journey; expect to leave sometime next week."

Cascade's eyes widened. "Does that mean…" Felix said softly.

"Yes, boy, you're hired," Agatha replied curtly. "Now get going! You've got a long road ahead of you!"


	2. Eevee's Charm

"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!" Felix said, kicking open the car door and running into Pallet Town. Cascade followed after him, less distressed. He skidded to a stop and turned back to thank his chauffer for reminding him of the backpack he had left in the car, then immediately turned around and sprinted again into the small town.

"You don't have to go so fast," Cascade laughed, keeping pace with his human.

"I've kept Raphael and his friends waiting long enough," Felix said between breaths. "I'm already a whole day late!"

"The delayed flight wasn't your fault," Cascade insisted. "Neither was our trouble with your luggage or the traffic or the car blowing a tire on the way here…"

Felix groaned.

"Or the tree blocking the road, or the construction work, or that one Mankey, or—"

"I thought we agreed to _never_ speak of the Mankey again," Felix interrupted, his voice low. Cascade gulped.

"My point is, you didn't do anything wrong," the Buizel finished.

"I think that not doing everything in my power to keep my appointments is wrong. I _can_ run all the way here, so I should," Felix grunted, pushing himself to run faster.

One five minute dash later, Felix was outside the door to Professor Oak's lab, gasping for breath. He pushed open the door with a shaking hand, entering a lobby with a wide entrance into the lab proper. The room was illuminated by tall, wide windows and overhead fluorescent lamps. Polished white tile covered the floor both in and out of the lobby.

"...And speak of the devil!" Professor Oak exclaimed. The aging man had grey hair and thick eyebrows and he wore a lab coat over a polo shirt and brown pants. Behind him were three others about his age. The boy with icy-blue eyes, ginger hair, and a red-trimmed white jacket he recognized immediately as Raphael d'Alcott, but the other two were unfamiliar to him: the other boy had crimson hair, green eyes and a burgundy jacket over a russet turtleneck while the blond girl with violet eyes wore a white shirt and skirt, pink scarf, and a tan overcoat. Raphael seemed pleased to see him, the other boy looked curious, and the girl seemed downright hostile with her cold glare.

Professor Oak gave the Felix a warm smile. "Welcome, Felix! I was just explaining to the others that you'd be here soon…" He adopted a surprised look. "You didn't run all the way here, did you?"

"I am…" Felix glanced at his watch, "eighteen hours and forty-two minutes late. Why should I be any later?"

"Why indeed, my young friend!" Oak laughed. "Although I did accommodate for your late arrival; we were prepared to wait tomorrow if we had to."

"Oh… that's nice," Felix muttered, slumping into a chair. Without warning the vase on the table beside him fell over, spilling water between his legs to make him appear as though he had wet himself.

"What was that for?!" Felix growled, jumping up and turning to see a cackling black-furred Zorua leap off the table from where she had hidden. She said something Felix couldn't understand, as he'd never spoken to a Zorua before, but based on the tone it was something rude. Felix caught Raphael suppressing a laugh as the fox ran up to the girl's shoulder.

"That was not polite, Zorua," the girl chided. The fox only snickered mischievously.

"It seems you've already met Sonia's Zorua," Oak chuckled good-naturedly, "so why don't I introduce you to everyone else?" He gestured to Raphael. "As I'm sure you know, this young man is Raphael d'Alcott. He's been looking forward to your arrival ever since he heard about you. To the left is Malcolm Thrones, Raphael's childhood friend. He's a very talented and intelligent young man like yourself. To the right there is Sonia Darkin, a gifted psychic and trainer both. And to the rest of you, this is Felix! He's a young Pokémon breeder and caretaker, here to help keep everyone in good working order. Additionally, he can understand Pokémon and speak to them in their own language! Aren't you all a talented bunch?"

Everybody regarded Felix with some surprise, making him grin awkwardly.

 _A psychic human?_ Felix thought. He had known about them, of course, but he had never met any personally. Furthermore, at the mere mention of the word "psychic" dozens of facts and procedures flooded his mind on the proper care for a Psychic-type Pokémon… hopefully he wouldn't embarrass himself by treating her like a Pokémon by accident.

Felix stepped forward, feeling very self-conscious about his wet jeans and sudden, tardy appearance. He extended a hand towards Raphael, who had stepped forward. "Pleased to finally meet you, Felix," he said as the two shook hands.

He then greeted Mal with another handshake. "Call me Mal," the teen said quietly. Now that he was up close it was clear both of them towered over him by nearly half a foot each.

Sonia, who was much shorter than any of them, refused his handshake. "Is something the matter?" Felix asked, frowning. Instinctively he attempted to quiet his mind, something a telepathic Pokémon would appreciate. _Shoot, am I treating her like a Pokémon? Is she reading my thoughts? Is she offended? Is she hearing_ this _?! Oh no, oh crap..._ Ironically, Felix's mind started to race as he met her gaze.

"I don't shake hands," she said, avoiding eye contact.

"Why's that?"

"If you'll remember what Oak said, I'm a psychic," she replied.

"I know; that's really cool!" Felix replied as politely as he could. "But why can't we shake hands?"

"Do you want me to have complete access to your thoughts? Learn all your darkest secrets and fears? Physical contact will give me a direct link to your mind. But if you insist…" she raised her hand to meet his.

Felix got the hint and quickly lowered his hand. After a moment or two he added, "Um… would you mind if your Zorua and I spoke every now and then?"

"Why?" She asked. "Can't you understand her already?"

"Um, no; there aren't many Zorua or Zoroark in Sinnoh, so I've never had a chance to learn their language."

Sonia seemed surprised and almost disappointed. Zorua looked at her and smirked, but said nothing.

"Zorua says she is willing to teach you tonight, once all this is over."

Felix was confused for a second, but then exclaimed, "Oh! You two spoke with telepathy!"

"Yeah. Your point?" A defensive edge entered her voice.

"Nothing, nothing," Felix said quickly. "It's just neat, that's all."

 _She's not the only one with telepathy, Zoru,_ a female voice in Felix's head called. _I can use it too, Zoru._ While it was accented and broken, the language was clearly English.

"Wow, that's amazing!" Felix brightened immediately "Maybe while you teach me your language, I can teach some of the finer points of ours."

 _Eh, that's what Sonia's for, Zorua. I just feel nice today, Zoru, so I'll help you._

"Now if you'll excuse me, I must go and finish some preparations," Oak spoke up. "Why don't you all get to know Felix a little better?" And with that, he left.

The aspiring trainers stood around awkwardly for a few moments. Felix eventually broke the silence by speaking to Raphael. "So, have you picked a starter yet?"

"No, but I don't plan to," he replied, reaching into his pocket. "I brought my own starters." Raphael procured two Pokéballs from which a pair of Eevee were released. "This is Sola," he gestured to the one wearing a white bow. She was more slender than the other, indicating a female, "and that's Lune." Slightly taller and stockier-a male. Otherwise, they were nearly identical. Were they twins?

"Hello, new friend!" Sola said brightly in the Eevee language.

"Greetings, stranger," Lune added coolly.

"It's nice to meet you two!" Felix replied in their language as he bent down to their level.

Sola squeaked and jumped in surprise. Lune narrowed his eyes. "Where did you learn to speak our language?"

"It's just something I was born with, as far as I can tell. I can learn any Pokémon language in just a few weeks if I really try! Being a breeder, I have lots of experience with your species, so I've already learned your language."

"You sound just like an Eevee," Raphael said quietly, looking rather stunned. Mal and Zorua both looked surprised, and Sonia gave him a curious look.

"As I was saying to them," Felix switched to English, looking up to the star trainer, "this is why I'm such a good Pokémon breeder and caretaker. Pokémon can simply tell me what they want to communicate rather than have to rely on gestures and the like. Speaking of, I'd like to get a rough idea of your Eevee's health, if I may."

"Sure, go ahead," Raphael nodded, moving to sit in a nearby plastic chair.

Felix frowned. "Aren't you going to come with me? I can't exactly do it inside, now can I?"

"Really? Okay, then." Raphael stood again. "What do you plan to do, then?"

"Let me show you," Felix replied. "Follow me, please," he added in the Eevee language. He led the three back to the front door, with Cascade joining in behind Felix.

"I'm Cascade," the eponymous Buizel said as Felix pushed the front door open.

"Cascade, huh?" Sola replied. "That's a nice name. I'm Sola, and this is my brother Lune!"

"You two smell almost identical; twins?" Cascade ventured.

"That's right!" Sola confirmed while Felix turned and sat beside her and Lune on the grassy hill outside the lab. The boy noticed that Mal had tagged along and was watching quietly.

"Now first, how are you two feeling?" Felix asked in their language. "Any aches or pains?"

The twin Eevee looked at one another before shaking their heads simultaneously. "We feel just fine," Sola said. Suddenly she chuckled. "This is fun, talking to a human! Raphy's always a little tricky to talk to, even if he tries his best."

"Well, I'd be glad to deliver any messages!" Felix offered while he felt over Lune's pelt to check for problems.

"Actually, could you tell him not to scratch me beneath my chin?" Sola asked. "I'm really sensitive there, but he won't stop!"

Felix smiled and delivered the message. A bemused Raphael smiled and nodded and Sola.

The Pokémon breeder proceeded to check Lune's teeth and claws and, finding them to be straight well cared for, patted the Eevee's head. "Looks like you're in good condition, Lune. One last thing, though; could you run to that tree and back a couple times?" Lune nodded and sped off while Felix checked over Sola.

Lune returned the second time and sat before Felix quietly. Felix swiftly turned to the male Eevee and felt his chest lightly with two fingers, counting his heartbeats as fifteen seconds passed on his Pokétch. He frowned, muttering the number to himself in English. "Isn't that a little high?" he said to no one in particular.

"Actually, it's pretty standard for Eevee," Mal replied. "They have an unusually quick metabolism, likely due to breeding for high energy or in preparation for evolution."

"Vee, evui! I mean, yes, that's right!" Felix cleared his throat, somewhat embarrassed. "So, um, where'd you learn that?"

"I'm trained to be a field nurse," Mal replied. "You pick up on things."

Felix grinned. "Still, always nice to meet someone so intelligent."

Mal smiled.

Sola, too, was in fine condition. "Raphael, your Eevee are quite healthy," Felix said cheerfully. "You've done a fine job raising them!"

"Thank you, Felix." Raphael smiled. "You can call me Raph, by the way."

"Raph it is, then," Felix nodded. "What will you evolve them into?"

Raph frowned, pensive. "You know, I've been thinking about that for a while, now. My mother says that an Umbreon will never let me down while I've always just liked Jolteon and Electric-types in general. And then Mal's always said that a Sylveon would help me care for the rest of my team, so I'm really not sure."

Felix nodded, attentive. "If I can give my two cents, I think that Glaceon and Leafeon make a great combination. And yes, they are the two most popular Eeveelutions in Sinnoh, but I think there's a good reason for that! They just play off one another so well: Glaceon's cold, Leafeon's warm. Glaceon is serious, Leafeon is relaxed. You know? Anyway, just with what I know about them Lune seems like he'd enjoy being a Glaceon and Sola would like Leafeon."

Raphael shrugged. "Maybe. I guess we'll just have to see, right?"

Sola had pawed one of Cascade's tails, calling him 'it'. Cascade ran after her, but the nimble Eevee managed to avoid his tagging. "I guess," Felix said absent-mindedly, distracted by the Pokémon's game. "But make sure you get their opinions before you go and evolve them, okay?"

"Of course, of course. So was there anything else you needed to do for my Pokémon?" Raph smiled as Lune was dragged into the game.

"You know, I hate to cut their fun short, but… how about a battle?" asked Felix.

Something seemed to spark to life in Raph's eyes. "Right now?" he asked.

"Well, maybe. They do look like they're having fun…"

Raph shook his head. "No, no; they'll be fine, trust me." He turned to the Pokémon. "Sola, Lune, we're gonna battle now!" The Eevee's ears perked at their trainer's call, then the two quickly ran towards him. "We're going to show Felix here everything we've got, okay?" he said, kneeling down to their level.

"Please, hold nothing back," Felix requested. "I need to know just how strong your team is so I know where to start in our training."

"And if some of us get hurt?" Cascade asked.

"I'd rather you get hurt in walking distance of Professor Oak than somewhere down the road," Felix replied quietly in Buizel. Cascade nodded in understanding.

"Ready to go, Felix?" Raphael called, already on the other end of the field. The transformation was stunning. No longer was the trainer the quiet, polite Raphael Felix had just met. There was excitement and anticipation in his every word and action. Felix contemplated if this was why Raphael was chosen to become the Elite Four's rising champion.

"You bet I am!" Felix replied as Cascade took his position before Felix.

"I can be the referee," Mal offered, standing on the side of the field between the two trainers.

"Alright! Sola, you're up first!" Raph commanded. Sola immediately sprang from Raphael's side out in front of him, facing Cascade with a determined glare. Cascade waved pleasantly.

 _Yeeahh! Come on, fox sister! Knock that stupid otter on his tails, Zoru!_ said the all too familiar mind-voice of Zorua. She and Sonia had stepped outside as well. Cascade shook his head, bemused at the little fox's jeering while Sola thanked her for the support.

"Okay Cascade, let's show 'em what we've learned!" Felix exclaimed in the Buizel tongue. Just as Felix had hoped, Raphael furrowed his brow, concerned at the unfamiliar language. "Quick Attack!" he commanded.

The Buizel vanished and reappeared with his right paw slamming into Sola's hide. A flustered Raphael called for her to dodge a moment too late. "Shake it off, Sola," he instructed. "Use Baby-Doll Eyes!"

Sola stared at Cascade with hurt, endearing look. The Buizel became less tense. "Tackle!" Sola's innocent look vanished as she charged Cascade.

"Get out of the way!" Felix called. never once using English. Cascade heeded the command, springing to the side.

Raphael grinned. "Sand Attack!" Sola stopped on a dime and kicked dirt backward towards her foe halfway through his jump. Unable to dodge, Cascade got a faceful of soil. "Tackle again!"

"Dodge it!" Felix cried, but the blinded Buizel hesitated and Sola crashed into him, knocking him to the ground. With a bit of thrashing Cascade threw the Eevee off and the two separated.

"Sonic Boom!" Felix called once Cascade has wiped the dirt from his eyes. Cascade whipped his tails around, sending a pulse of energy hurtling towards Sola.

"Counter it with Swift!" Raph commanded, but it was already too late; the attack had connected, sending Sola tumbling backwards. The young trainer was looking very anxious, his fists clenching and his stance weakening. After all, it wasn't every day you fought a trainer who spoke a different language-could Raphael adapt to the lack of warning in Felix's commands? That's what Felix wanted to know.

"Quick Attack; aim from behind!" Felix said. Sola was knocked off her paws just as she had gotten up, flung into the air to land near the center of the field. She collapsed as she landed, eyes shut. For a moment it seemed she wouldn't get up, but rise she did. She winced as she put weight on her left front paw, but she gave Cascade a determined glare.

"That's my girl!" Raph cheered. "Don't give up just yet; use Swift!" Felix noticed the pain in Sola's movements, but with a swish of her tail she sent a flurry of stars after Cascade.

Thinking quickly, Felix shouted, "Cascade, Sonic Boom; counter her attack!" His Buizel immediately whipped his own tails around, destroying Sola's projectiles with her own.

"Tackle!" Raph commanded. Startled, Felix didn't have time to issue a command before Sola crashed into the distracted Cascade yet again.

"Throw her off, Quick Attack her in the chest, then Sonic Boom!" Felix instructed. Cascade complied immediately, kicking the Eevee off before speeding beneath her and using an uppercut all before Raph could react. By the time Raph noticed the Sonic Boom attack, it was too late.

Sola fell to the ground and did not stir. After a few moments, Mal declared, "Sola is no longer able to battle. The winner is Cascade!"

Felix let out a cheer while Raph collected Sola in his arms, stroking her fur comfortingly. Once the Eevee was returned to her Pokéball, Raph turned to Felix. "Very clever, speaking the Buizel language so I couldn't understand you. But I'm not your average trainer; Lune, show him what I mean!"

Lune entered the field. "You may have defeated my sister, but you won't bring me down!" he challenged.

Cascade shrugged. "Be my guest… but I'm not making it easy!"

"Lune, use Swift!" Raphael commanded. In the space of a single moment Lune's muscles tensed, his expression darkened, and he whipped his tail around to spray stars at Cascade.

"Quick Attack to get behind Lune, use him as a shield!" Felix countered. His Buizel complied, vanishing in a blur before reappearing behind his foe. Cascade ducked as the star projectiles reversed direction to hurtle towards him through Lune.

"Jump and Swift again!" Raph reacted.

"Quick Attack, knock him into the stars!" said Felix.

The two Pokémon immediately obeyed their trainers' commands. Lune jumped out of the way of his own attack and added a second round of stars to chase Cascade. Cascade in turn maneuvered behind Lune with incredible speed, kicking the Eevee into the incoming stars. A shower of light exploded from the stars Lune collided with while the rest finally found their mark in Cascade.

The Buizel dropped to the grass panting; all the battling was starting to get to him. Lune got to his feet, looking slightly fatigued but definitely in better condition. Felix had to wrap this up, quickly. "Sonic Boom!" he commanded.

"Sand Attack!" Raphael replied. Cascade's exhaustion meant he could barely raise his tails before mud and dirt was tossed in his face. "Sand Attack once more; keep him disoriented!" Lune continued to kick dirt into Cascade's eyes. Felix hesitated; a Sonic Boom or Quick Attack would just miss, and he can't get the dirt off before Lune kicks up more.

"Now Tackle!" Raph instructed. Lune charged the Buizel.

"Quick Attack; get out of the way!" Cascade darted off across the field away from Lune.

"Use Swift; follow the stars and use another Sand Attack!" Raph continued. Lune heeded the command, unleashing another flurry of stars that collided with Cascade and exploded against his back, tearing open his pelt. As rivulets of blood streamed out of the wound, Felix's heart began to pound, his head becoming fuzzy. Cascade turned to face Lune and immediately got a faceful of dirt.

"Will you stop that?!" Cascade growled.

"Only if you hold still," Lune countered.

"Tackle!" Raph commanded. Felix couldn't react in time, paralyzed by the sight of blood.

Cascade whipped around of his own initiative and used Sonic Boom, but the Eevee easily dodged his blind attack before crashing right into his belly. The otter gagged as the wind was knocked out of him.

"Finish it with Swift!" Raphael said. Obediently Lune unleashed another round of star projectiles. Cascade staggered under the blow, then collapsed, unconscious.

"Cascade is unable to battle!" Mal declared. "Raphael and his team are victorious!"

Raphael cheered and picked up Lune in delight as Felix quickly ran out to his hurt Buizel, examining the lacerations on his back. He tried to convince himself that it looked much worse than it was, but he could not seem to calm his frayed nerves.

"You're not hurt too badly, right, dear?" Felix worried, speaking in Floatzel.

"No, of course not," Cascade whispered and weakly shook his head. "I'm just more tired than anything. Also… 'dear'?"

Felix blushed and laughed lightly. "Oh, sorry; I guess I was just worried and all," he said using the Buizel language.

"If you say so… And sorry about the end, there. I got really flustered when he kept tossing dirt in my face." Cascade said.

Felix chuckled despite himself. "Why are you blaming yourself? I'm the one who should have told you how to win. Besides, you nearly held your own against both of Raph's Eevee! That's a victory if I've ever heard one." Felix reached in his backpack for Cascade's Pokéball, expanding it as he pulled it out. "Let's get you safe," he said, returning Cascade to his Pokéball before he could react.

"That was quite the challenge!" Raphael said loudly. "It's not everyday I fight a trainer like you; you even knocked out Sola!"

Felix smiled, slowly calming down. "It really was, yeah."

"Indeed, what a fine battle that was!" Professor Oak declared. "Raphael, Felix, I see great potential in both of you! And good news, Felix; you've been registered! Tomorrow you should all be ready to set out on your adventure, but for now let's have your Pokémon healed and your bodies rested. Come along, now; I have a healing machine in my lab."

The aged professor turned and entered his lab and Mal followed suit.

Zorua stuck her tongue out at Felix. _Heh! Just wait 'til you fight Sonia, Zoru! Your stupid otter will lose before you can say "Bui bui bui", Zorua!_ Sonia gave the impudent fox a flick on the ear, but followed Mal inside without a word.

"We'll have to battle again sometime," Raphael said, walking beside Felix. He grinned. "Maybe next time you'll play fair and speak English."

Felix shook his head. "Floatzel zel flo-tze," he said somberly.

"Come on. really? You're not a Floatzel and neither am I!"

"I said you're going to have to get used to it," Felix lied. "We're travelling together, aren't we?"

"Whatever," Raphael replied. "See you inside!" The boy ran ahead, leaving Felix alone outside.

 _Floatzel zel flo-tze,_ Felix heard in his mind, memories from his childhood flooding back.

 _Make him strong, but keep him safe,_ Felix repeated. _I promise._


	3. Zoroark's Wit

_Repeat after me, Zoru,_ the now familiar voice of Zorua rang in Felix's head. The human and fox sat together with Cascade on the floor of Felix's guest bedroom, a simply furnished room with a queen size bed with cream-colored sheets along with a dark wooden headboard and nightstand. The delicious smell of baking wafted from the provided kitchen as Mal prepared another experimental batch of cookies for Felix to test. But for the moment, Zorua cleared her throat dramatically and said "Zoru zor zorua azo rua!"

Cascade shook his head. "We're not going to get anywhere by teaching Felix insults towards himself," the Buizel said. "You know I won't let you trip Felix into saying it; why not just cooperate?"

 _You two are no fun, Zoru. Why not let a poor fox laugh a little, eh, Zoru?_

"Tell you what, Zorua," Felix said in Buizel, "at the end of your lessons, I'll repeat anything you like for, say, five minutes?"

 _Anything, zoru?_ The fox's deep red eyes twinkled with mischief, her vulpine jaw curling into a smile.

"I guess, sure! What's the worse that could happen?" Felix knew he wouldn't care if Zorua made him insult himself; after all, he was learning to speak Zorua. The language had, as always, come remarkably fast to him. After just a couple hours he was starting to pick up on some common words and a few conjugations.

Cascade frowned. "What if she has you insult me or Teddi and Su Lin? I don't think they would take too kindly to hearing insults thrown at them, and… to be honest, I don't want to hear you verbally attack me either." The Buizel looked hurt by the very thought of his lifelong trainer insulting him, and Felix picked up on this immediately.

"Not anything, then, but almost anything," Felix stipulated.

 _Argh, you stupid otter!_ Zorua mentally exclaimed. _Are you that scared of words like a little baby, Zoru?_

"I don't think you'd take too kindly to having Sonia explain how terrible you are, genuinely or not!" Cascade shouted.

 _I…_ Zorua growled for a second. _Fine! Say this, Zoru!_ She shouted another incomprehensible phrase, but once Cascade nodded his approval Felix repeated it.

It always felt strange how quickly Felix's own voice adjusted, the way his throat and tongue and teeth smoothly and effortlessly transitioned from English to a language he had barely heard before today. On nothing but instinct Felix repeated what Zorua had said, matching her intonation, syllable pattern, accent, and even pitch.

 _Yikes! That's creepy, Zoru. You sound like the Pokedex!_

"My trainer is quite gifted," Cascade said with a prideful air.

 _As if! This breeder boy is nothing compared to Sonia! She'd squash him like an Oran Berry!_

"What did you say, you insolent little canine?!"

Felix only smiled and rubbed Cascade's floatation collar. He didn't care whether she was a better trainer; he excelled in breeding, not battling. "Before you continue, could you please say out loud what you're saying telepathically?" Felix interrupted.

 _Not until your stupid otter apologizes,_ Zorua huffed.

"Apologize?!" Cascade exclaimed. "Why on earth should I apologize?"

"Am I interrupting something?" the quiet voice of Mal cut through the tension like a knife.

"Zorua and Cascade are just helping me learn-hey, those look amazing!" Felix noticed the plate of cookies Mal was carrying. There were at least a dozen of the white sugar cookies, each meticulously frosted to resemble a different kind of berry. Even a casual glance at the frosting immediately reminded Felix of each berry's nutritional and medicinal properties. "They're so detailed; how did you do that?"

Mal smiled and set the plate on the floor. "They're Pokémon safe as well; why don't you have Cascade and Zorua try one, too?"

"They're really good!" a small voice squeaked. Teddi, Mal's Teddiursa, cowered back behind her trainer's leg after his sudden bout of bravery. Beside his other leg, Mal's Pancham Su Lin nodded emphatically.

Felix smiled kindly at the little bear as he took an Oran Cookie and bit into it. Immediately his eyes widened with delight. The soft, sugary cookie perfectly complimented the sweet berry flavor of the frosting. There were other flavors mixed in, he was sure, but it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. Instead, he was left with what tasted like a mouthful of heaven.

"Holy—this is the best cookie I've ever had!" Felix exclaimed with a full mouth. He swallowed and continued, "Didn't you say you were just experimenting with ingredients? Where on Earth did you learn to cook this well?!"

Mal seemed to relax. "I've had some training over the years and in general I just like to cook. Glad to see the Pokémon are enjoying them too." He gestured at Teddi, Su Lin, Cascade, and Zorua, all of whom were gleefully devouring their own cookies.

Felix sat cross-legged on the ground beside Cascade and rubbed the Buizel's head. Looking to Mal, he said, "For as long as you're here, Mal, why don't we tell a little about ourselves? I know Raphael well enough from, well, studying him," Felix laughed unconvincingly, "but you and Sonia are mysteries to me."

Mal sat beside his own Pokémon with perfect posture. With a little huff, Zorua grabbed three more cookies with her jaws and said, _If you two are just going to talk, Zoru, I'm out! But you owe me those five minutes, Zoru, don't forget!_

Felix laughed as the little fox skipped out of the room with her treats. "I won't, Zoru!" Felix paused in surprise as Zorua's laughter rang out through the guest area. He chuckled, embarrassed. "Guess she's got me doing it too."

"She's cute," Mal nodded. "So would you like me to start?"

"If you like." Felix rubbed Cascade's side as he leaned against his trainer and reached for a second cookie.

"Well, as you know, my name is Malcolm Thrones. I was born to a well-off family in Celadon City and I've been a close friend of Raph since we were kids. I've had Teddi for as long as I can remember, and Su Lin more or less adopted me when I took a trip to Kalos." He smiled fondly at the bears, rubbing their heads. "I enjoy… making things, mechanical and culinary."

"Like these amazing cookies," Felix lauded, then finished his Pecha Cookie.

"Yes, like those." Mal continued, "I'm hoping to grow stronger on this journey alongside Raph, earn gym badges, meet Pokémon, and maybe even challenge the league. Hopefully I don't slow Raph down too much," he joked.

"You'll be fine, I'm sure," Felix insisted.

"And like I said earlier I'm trained in field medicine, so I'm sure we'll have things to talk about there."

"That's awesome," Felix replied. "To be honest, I'm kind of relieved you're a Pokémon caretaker as well, because…" He sighed. "Well, I'm not too good with blood. Just… something about it always freaks me out, makes me slow and shaky." He knew exactly why blood scared him, but there was no reason to tell Mal that. "Broken bones I can set in a heartbeat, sickness I can diagnose with almost perfect accuracy, but once a Pokémon gets a nasty cut, I'm basically worthless."

Mal nodded in understanding. "I noticed that, during your battle with Raph. I'll be sure to help out whenever it gets hard for you."

Felix smiled. "I like you already. Well, it's kind of hard not to like someone who brings along a plate of impossibly good cookies, but you just seem like a great guy all around: smart, creative, helpful, and very polite."

Mal smiled back. "You flatter me, Felix, but thank you."

Felix pointed at him emphatically. "See? Polite! Right there!"

Mal chuckled, shaking his head. "Yes, thank you, I get it. So do you have any questions for me?"

Felix thought for a moment. "Say, are Su Lin and Teddi male or female?"

Mal seemed somewhere between surprised and confused. "Er, Teddi's male, Su Lin is female. Why do you ask?"

Felix's expression brightened and he rubbed his hands together in satisfaction. "Oh, perfect!" he exclaimed. "I definitely ship it now!"

Mal blinked. "Umm… pardon?"

"I ship them!" Felix said matter-of-factly. When Mal continued to stare, Felix elaborated, "You know, ship as in 'relationship'? Where you romantically pair two characters in a TV show you like because you think they belong together?"

"I know what shipping is, but… you're shipping my Pokémon? My _real life_ Pokemon?" Mal asked.

"Come on, all breeders do it!" Felix replied with a casual air. "It's basically our jobs, you know! Besides, they're a perfect combination! Teddiursa from Pangoro fathers tend to have biting problems, but nothing's cuter than a Pancham with Teddiursa genes!"

Mal nodded stiffly, unsure of what to say. "I... see. So, uh, do you ship Cascade with anyone…?"

"Him? No, not yet; so far I haven't found anyone good enough for him. Briefly thought about Zorua, but no, there's definitely no romantic tension between them-just regular tension."

Mal nodded again. "I… see. You're a strange one, Felix."

"Ah, you just need to lighten up," Felix insisted. Beneath the boy's arm, Cascade looked to Mal and nodded in agreement.

Mal shrugged. "Anything else you'd like to know about me, or would you like to tell me about yourself now?"

"I'm sure I'll get to know you better with time, so I'll just go ahead with my own summary," Felix said. "So my name is Felix Verity. I come from Sinnoh where I'm already a fully recognized breeder; I'm a bit of a prodigy, you could say." He smiled, attempting to seem casual. "It helps a lot that I can speak to Pokémon, either by using their own tongue or by using the Buizel or Floatzel language as a proxy."

"If you don't mind me asking, how do you do that?" Mal interrupted.

"Speak to Pokémon?" Felix considered hinting at the truth, but reasoned against it. "I guess I'm just lucky and was born with it. They just… make sense to me, like cookie flavors make sense to you."

"Fair enough," Mal replied.

Without warning Sonia burst into the room, looking extremely annoyed. "Okay…" she seethed, "who would be so unimaginably stupid as to give Zorua sugar?!"

Mal raised a nervous hand. "That, uh, would be my doing." In the living room behind Sonia, Zorua sped by in an instant, laughing and squealing.

"Then you're just going to have to pray that she doesn't break anything important before the sugar wears off," Sonia growled. "How much did she eat, by the way?"

"I think she had one sugar cookie here and ran off with three," Felix commented.

Sonia became still. "Four cookies," she said icily. "She had _four_ sugar cookies in five minutes."

Felix grew concerned with her tone. "Is… that a problem?"

"Do you have any idea how hyperactive Zorua gets when she has sugar?!" Sonia exploded. "She'll be up all night at this rate, and she'll keep the rest of us up too! I swear to Arceus, I am _this_ close to breaking someone's arm!"

"I-I'm sorry, Sonia!" Mal replied. "I wouldn't have given her any if I had known—"

"Let me handle this," Felix offered, getting to his feet. Cascade followed suit.

Sonia snorted. "Let _you_ handle this? That's a laugh. What could you do that I haven't already tried? She won't listen to anyone, much less a person she just met."

"Oh, she listens, all right," Felix insisted. "It's how she responds to what you say and do that really matters. If she won't speak your language, speak hers."

"We communicate with telepathy," Sonia rebutted, "and you said yourself that you can't speak Zorua. Just get off your high horse already."

"Well… just watch." Felix winked and led Cascade out of the guest room. "Spray her when she comes by," Felix muttered to the Buizel in his own language. "Then taunt her and run outside. Sonia and I will be right behind you."

The clacking of claws against tile signalled Zorua's dash through the kitchen. With careful aim, Cascade spat out a stream of water directly at the little fox, thoroughly soaking her dark pelt. She squeaked in surprise as she was sprayed, then glared at the Buizel.

 _You… stupid otter!_ Zorua mentally shouted. _Why did you get my fur wet, huh, Zoru?!_

"It was funny!" Cascade laughed. "Totally worth that expression!"

 _Why, you...! I'll scratch that smug smile right off your face, Zoru!_

"First you have to catch me!" Cascade challenged. As Zorua leaped at him, he quickly sidestepped and bolted for the glass back door, whose handle he could just reach. Zorua quickly switched directions and launched herself at the fleeing Cascade, but he had already gotten outside and closed the door. Zorua bounced off the door to the carpet as Cascade stuck his tongue out from behind the glass.

 _Sonia, open the door, Zoru!_ Zorua demanded, trying to jump up and grab the handle herself.

Sonia glanced at Felix, surprised. The young breeder only wore a self-satisfied smile. "When you say 'Get back here!', she hears 'Keep going, it's funny!'" But if you say 'You'll never catch me!", she'll hear 'Come outside and play with me!' You have to know what the words mean to _her_ , not just what they mean to _you_. Come on, let's go outside."

Sonia and Felix walked to the back door. The moment the girl turned the handle on the door, Zorua forced herself through and after Cascade, who had taken off across the grass. "I don't know how much stamina Zorua has, but hopefully this will tire her out before Cascade," Felix said, sitting on a metal bench on the patio.

"You clearly don't know Zorua," Sonia replied cynically, sitting on the far end of the bench.

"Nope!" Felix agreed cheerfully. "But over the course of this journey I will get to know her and the rest of our teams, and that makes me very, _very_ excited. It's half the reason I signed up for this anyway."

"And the other half?" Sonia asked. She seemed less icy than before, which encouraged Felix.

"It's… actually, a lot of things, honestly," Felix said with a short laugh. "A lot of the higher ups in the Kanto League and the National Breeder's Association think having their two prodigies seen together will help PR, I've always wanted to see Kanto and meet new people and Pokémon and… well, I need more than just Cascade for breeding!"

Sonia seemed perturbed. "You want to catch Pokémon… just to have them breed with each other."

"Not _just_ for breeding! They're my friends and partners first… but yeah, I'll look for good opportunities to breed them. And besides, I'm actually hoping to get as many different egg groups as I can, so they won't be making too many Eggs together. ...What?" Felix could not figure out why Sonia looked so unnerved.

"Uhh… nothing. It's nothing."

Felix shrugged. "You can always tell me." After a moment of silence, broken only by the banter between Cascade and Zorua, he moved on, saying, "Do you mind telling me a little about yourself?"

Sonia sighed. "Fine. I'm Sonia Darkin, a psychic from the Unova region. I moved to Kanto a few years ago and trained with Sabrina in her gym. I have Zorua and a Sawk named Kai. Will that suffice?"

Felix smiled patiently. Mal was so much easier than this. "Well, maybe a little more would be nice? Like, uh… what sort of powers do you have?"

Sonia twitched at the request, but nevertheless listed, "Teleportation, telepathy, telekinesis."

Felix grew wide-eyed. "All that? Can you do a lot with those powers? Like, teleport miles away or lift an Hippowdon?"

"In some ways, yes. In other ways, no," Sonia replied vaguely. Felix decided not to press the issue.

But still, that much power for such a little girl? Something didn't feel right about that, Felix thought. But he reasoned it would be best to befriend the girl who could probably kill him with a thought rather than shun or hate her. Emotions are infectious, after all

…Then again, she seemed to display no hint of emotion, unless you counted cynicism or irritation. Maybe she just needs a friend?

"I don't need your friendship, Felix, and I'm not going to kill you," Sonia suddenly said. "Just because I can doesn't mean I will."

Felix chuckled, trying to calm his nerves. "To be honest you are kind of scary. But that's okay; I'm sure we can be friends! 'Zelo float-ze zel zelo flo-el', after all."

Sonia blinked. "What was that?"

"Oh, _now_ you stop reading my mind? Sure, fine—I said 'Being happier is better than being sad'. It's kind of my motto."

"No, it was… never mind. Whatever. Cool motto, it's not for me."

"Aww, come on, Sonia!" Felix nearly wrapped his arm around her, but caught himself. "Who doesn't want to be happy?"

"I don't. And I especially don't need you to make me happy."

"Felix!" Cascade called. "I can't do this anymore... but Zorua just won't get tired!" The Buizel narrowly dodged Zorua as she sprang at him again, then took off running across the grass once again.

Conversation forgotten, Felix immediately stood and ran for Cascade. As Zorua neared her target and jumped, Felix threw himself in the way, deftly catching the fox in a gentle embrace. Sharp claws enthusiastically dug into Felix's hands as Zorua finally managed to grab something, but years of handling young Pokémon meant that Felix hardly noticed. Instead, he pinned Zorua against the ground, scratching and tickling her pelt all over.

As Zorua squealed with laughter, she telepathically complained, _Hey, what's the meaning of this, Zoru? You're not that stupid otter!_

Said otter collapsed against the side of the lab as Felix continued his assault on Zorua's nerves. "Nah, he cheated and had me double-team you."

 _Hey, no fair, Zoru!_

"It was the only way we stood a chance of winning, you know!" Felix explained. "With all that sugar you've got in you there was no way either of us stood a chance alone."

Zorua stopped wriggling so energetically, and Felix responded with more gentle stroking. With a canine grin, she called out, _Yeah, hear that, Buizel? If your trainer didn't help you, Zoru… I'd have torn you to pieces…_ Zorua yawned, prompting Felix to inwardly cheer. With deliberate, slow movement, he lifted the fox into his arms. Just as he suspected, Zorua crashed hard once her sugar rush ended and she had immediately fallen asleep.

He offered Zorua to Sonia, who took her Pokémon into her own arms with telekinesis. "I'll admit, you're pretty good with Pokémon," she said quietly, mindful of the sleeping Zorua. "I think you'll be nice to have along."

Felix laughed softly. "'Nice to have along'? Well, it's a start; I'll take it!" Turning to the exhausted Cascade, Felix lifted and embraced his Buizel, rubbing his floatation collar. "And you did so well today," Felix praised. "You're the real hero tonight!"

"Thanks, Felix," Cascade replied. "But I'd like to go to bed now…"

"'Course you can! You can fall asleep now, actually; I'll carry you inside. How's that sound?"

The Buizel was already sound asleep.


	4. Metagross's Strategy

"Best of luck, everyone!" Professor Oak offered as he ruffled up Raphael's and Felix's hair. The four teens stood in the lobby of the lab, morning light streaming through the wide windows. Felix automatically cringed, not expecting the hand as he fiddled with his Pokedex. But in any case, his suspicions were confirmed-the Pokedex didn't have anything he didn't already know. Shame. Felix pocketed the device.

"Thank you, Professor," Mal said, polite as ever.

"Yes, thank you," Raphael chimed in. Felix and Sonia stayed quiet.

"Now as a quick reminder, Route One is a straight path all the way to Viridian. It can get windy, but there won't be any branches or forks to worry about," Professor Oak said for the fifth time that morning. "Just follow the road and you'll be there by nightfall! But if not, I'm sure you're all prepared for your first night on the trail, right?"

"Yes, Professor, we're prepared," Sonia said with just a hint of annoyance. "Let's just go now." The girl walked out the front door without a second glance from her or Zorua from her perch on Sonia's shoulder. In turn the boys looked at one another, somewhere between surprised and confused.

"We should be going to," Raphael declared. "Thanks again for everything, Professor Oak!" The trainer walked with purpose out the door, Mal, Felix, and Cascade close behind. The three jogged at a brisk pace after Sonia and upon reaching her slowed to a more casual speed.

Felix took in the sight of dense trees marking the edges of the winding route, of patches of tall grass dotting the dirt road. He smelled the clean air, listened to birds sing, and felt each step, one after another. What a perfect day!

"Ah, I'm so excited!" Felix exclaimed. "Travelling all of Kanto, meeting so many new people and Pokémon, growing stronger and wiser… I've been looking forward to this my whole life!"

"I've been _training_ for this my whole life, actually," Raphael spoke up. "Years of preparation, learning every battle tactic in the book, and working with some of the best trainers in all of Kanto… all for this journey."

"So I've read," Felix replied. "You really have it all, don't you?"

"Believe me, I've earned it," the boy claimed. "You don't work as hard as I do without reaping the rewards."

Felix grinned. "Hah! You're talking to a fully certified breeder, one who skipped a decade of classes to finish this early-if I didn't want to go on this journey, I'd be making serious cash with Pokémon breeding and caretaking commissions. But instead I chose to come all the way to Kanto and spend however long it takes to push you through the gyms… but if you're so high and mighty like you say, should I have bothered coming here at all?"

Raphael scowled. "Hey, it's not like I begged you to come along—"

Felix laughed heartily. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Actually, it'd be more accurate to say I begged to come along with how much work it took to get here, so thank you for tolerating my presence!"

"Uhh, you're welcome," Raphael replied unsteadily. "I'm… glad you're here, really."

"Not to mention, Cascade beat Sola pretty good back there," Felix said casually.

"That wasn't a fair fight and you know it!" Raphael exclaimed. "Reacting to your opponent's commands is a critical part of battling!"

"It's all part of your training," Felix explained. "How much better will you be if you can react to attacks or deception in half the time? Also, Sabrina's going to be a real pain in the rear with her telepathy unless we start practicing for it."

"She's the sixth gym leader!" Raphael complained.

"Don't forget Sonia! Hey, Sonia, you communicate with your Pokémon during battles using telepathy, right?"

"Hm?" Sonia replied, still looking forward. "Oh, yeah."

"There you go," Felix looked at Raph while gesturing to Sonia. Raphael only frowned. "Hey, is there a problem?" Felix asked.

"I…" Raphael began, then eyed Sonia suspiciously.

"I already know, d'Alcott; just say it," Sonia spoke up bluntly.

"It's… that!" Raphael exclaimed. "That and her other weird psychic powers. She has no respect for privacy or basic human decency. When we first met she read my mind and Mal's without permission, just to insult me for my _private_ thoughts."

"It shouldn't matter if you've got nothing to be ashamed of," Felix commented.

"What, you've got nothing you're not willing to say out loud?" Raph retorted.

"'Course I do!" Felix winked. "But it won't bother me if it comes out." His heart lurching, he realized that Sonia hadn't ever spoken up about his… secret. Did she know? Why hadn't she said anything about it? He was good at not thinking about it, but certainly a psychic could find it anyway… right?

"Well, lucky you," Raphael grumbled. "But I still can't stand her."

"The feeling's mutual," Sonia spoke up. "So just stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours."

"Let's just move on," Felix advised. "So, in my research about the gym leaders, it seems the average number of attempts is around six to seven once you get to Surge and beyond. Even if they deliberately use weaker Pokémon to scale with a trainer's progress, they're all way harder than most people expect."

"Yeah, I've seen videos," Raphael nodded. "They _destroy_ trainers over and over."

"So it makes me wonder, what about them is so tough?" Felix pondered. "If they use Pokémon on par with the average trainer's, shouldn't they be on equal footing?"

"Don't forget, these guys have decades of practice battling," Raphael explained. "Superior tactics, better reaction time—"

"A closer bond with their Pokémon?"

"Everything," Raphael finished. "Most trainers eventually win by sheer strength; I want to do better."

Felix grinned. "Oh, really?"

"I want to beat them at their own game. I want to show them why I deserve to be the champion, why I was chosen to represent the future of Kanto. I'm going to win not because my Pokémon did more laps around the track, I'm going to win because I can outsmart them."

Sonia snorted. "Outsmart gym leaders? Really? I knew you had an inflated opinion of yourself, Raphael d'Alcott, but I'm surprised you haven't burst from your own ego yet."

Raphael glared at her and opened his mouth to probably say something nasty, but Felix stepped between them, saying, "Sonia, that was a little uncalled for, don't you think?"

Sonia merely walked on, saying, "Sooner or later he's going to end up humiliated in battle. Would you rather him learn humility now or after he's had his team utterly decimated? Because I know he's afraid of it. Failure's not an option for him, not with all the high expectations put on him. Losing means failing the Elite Four, your mother, and now Felix-isn't that right?"

"Shut up," Raphael growled.

"So you refuse to lose, even if that's completely impossible. The gym leaders are going to defeat you over and over—"

"I said shut up!" Raphael shouted. Felix frowned. Saying he looked tense was an understatement-he looked ready to kill the girl.

"Sonia, please, let me handle this," Felix said. "I think you've made your point." Turning to Raphael, he suggested, "Why don't we fall behind a few steps? That way we can have our conversation with a bit more privacy."

"Nothing's private around Sonia Darkin," Raph muttered.

Felix laughed. "That's very true! Ah, but we'll get used to it. If you're at peace with yourself, she shouldn't bother you."

Raph sighed in response, but slowed his pace with Felix until Mal and Sonia were about fifty paces ahead.

"Sonia's rather rude," Cascade commented.

"I'm tempted to agree, but I feel like it's just bad chemistry between them," Felix explained in the Buizel language. "Raph's rubbed the wrong way by Sonia's brusqueness, and Sonia's rubbed the wrong way by Raph's pride."

"And you?" Cascade asked.

The boy smiled. "Well, I think I'll be able to understand and get along with both of them. Sonia wasn't so bad last night, was she?"

"Felix?" Raphael interjected.

"Oh, sorry!" Felix switched to English. "Cascade just had a question is all."

"That's fine," Raph replied. His shoulder's slumped a little as he sighed. "So… what do you think, honestly? Is my plan stupid and prideful like Sonia said?"

"I think it's a great goal, honestly," Felix insisted. "But it's good to keep things realistic. The only time a Gym Leader has been defeated first try is if the challenger had already cleared another region's Gyms and had an incredibly powerful team. So here's what I'm thinking— since nobody in their right mind would expect a trainer to win first try, just don't expect to win! You're going to lose and it might even be hilarious."

Raphael gave Felix a disconcerted look. "You mean… Intentionally lose? Really?"

"Not intentionally lose, but… well, you can try your best to hold back a river even if there's no hope of succeeding. In the same way, try to win even though you have no hope of winning."

"I still don't understand," Raphael shook his head.

"Well, just hear me out. It's all the expectation; if you don't expect to win but you still give it a go, you won't get humiliated and angered! But you can make that loss count, too. You go in, you lose, but while you're losing keep track of all the Gym Leader's quirks and preferences. If you want to outsmart them like you said, watch carefully for any weaknesses. Then after some more practice, go in a second time and use those new strategies to learn how the Gym Leader adapts and any weakness they have in that. But then your third time, you should be nice and practiced against the Gym Leader, so as long as you keep your own strategy fresh and really watch for those weaknesses you found, I think you can consistently win third time! 'Course, this all depends on you being the tactical genius your reports say you are."

"I don't think all that's necessary," Raphael shook his head. "Why can't I just do all that in my first battle?"

"Because…" Felix deliberated in himself for a moment. "It just doesn't work that way. There's not enough time to learn and adapt in the heat of battle. You need some downtime to really work out a good plan."

"Felix, if there's anyone who can do it, it's me," Raph insisted. "I've been training my whole life for this, remember?"

"You nearly lost to a breeder and his lone Buizel!" Felix countered. "The gym leaders are way, _way_ tougher than I am!"

"That's called a non-transitive game," Raphael replied. "Just like Grass beats Water beats Fire beats Grass, you lose to gym leaders, I lose to you, and gym leaders lose to me."

"That's not how it works," Felix said softly. "Tell me-are you really scared of failing, like Sonia said?"

Raphael was silent for a moment. Then he gave a short reply: "Yes."

"Then please. Learn to expect failure from fighting these guys. You'll be much happier that way."

"I'll be happy when I win," Raph insisted, sounding uncomfortable. "Can we just drop this for now?"

Felix shrugged. "Sure. Brock's not for another couple towns anyway." He jogged up to the rest of the main group with Cascade and Raphael.

"Welcome back," Mal said. "How'd it go?"

"Great," Felix said before Raph could speak. "We discussed some battle strategies, but we'll finalize things once we get to Pewter." After that, an uncomfortable silence followed. Raph and Sonia, while on opposite sides, kept glaring daggers at one another through Mal and Felix.

Which is why Felix was incredibly grateful when Mal picked a leaf off a small, flowering plant. "I recognize this plant. Its leaves cause terrible stomach cramps and are a powerful laxative; its effects can last for days. For whatever reason, though, it's marketed as a detox treatment in Kalos."

Felix laughed. "Nothing like poison to clean up your system, that's great! But then again, I recognize this leaf myself. Grind it up and dilute it enough and you'll get a popular homeopathic remedy for digestive problems."

Mal hummed. "If I'm honest, I've never liked homeopathy. It's just hyped-up water, isn't it?"

Felix shrugged. "Well, the theory goes that the aura of the substance stays in the water, then gets inverted further with each dilution. Then when you take it, it cancels out the bad aura of the ailment."

"Even though no aura seers claim to see anything different about the water?"

Felix grinned. "Conveniently, the aura is bound extremely tightly within the water molecules."

"So how does it spread to the other water molecules when you dilute it?" Mal countered.

"I have no idea," Felix admitted. "But you'd be surprised how many breeders swear by homeopathic remedies."

Mal only shook his head, leading to a break in the conversation. At least the situation seemed somewhat defused.

"Ow! What was that for?!" Sonia suddenly shouted from behind them. Everybody turned to look at her. "What?" she snapped.

Without warning, a woman was behind Sonia, causing everyone but Sonia herself to jump. Felix swore she wasn't there the moment before. "What do we have here?" she said in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Four little children, wandering around by themselves?"

Felix was so stunned by her sudden that he hardly followed what happened next. Raphael approached, then the woman snapped at him and named Felix and his companions.

"Uhh… do you know her?" Raphael asked Felix, obviously as confused as Felix was.

Felix shook his head. "No; Sonia?"

In response Sonia raised herself with telekinesis up to the woman's level. "Excuse me," Sonia said. The ice in her voice made Felix glad to have the girl on her side. "But who the hell are you?"

The woman shook her head. "Such manners," she tutted. Then she snapped her fingers, causing Sonia's legs to fly out from under her as she fell to the ground. Felix's heart started to pound. A psychic? This couldn't end well.

"Ooh, rare Pokémon!" a voice called from the trees. "I call dibs!" Two nearly identical men dropped down from the trees, scooping up Zorua before standing beside the psychic woman.

Felix's blood started to boil and it took every fiber of his being not to charge in recklessly. Sonia tried to run after them, but a pink haze formed between them. As she collided with it, it flared a dark pink and reflected her backwards.

"Uh oh," Raphael muttered. "This is bad…"

"Who do you think you are, treating a Pokémon that way!" Felix suddenly shouted. He couldn't help it, seeing them handle Zorua so roughly, clamping her muzzle shut. The poor thing pawed helplessly at the man's huge hand-she couldn't breathe!

"Who are we?" parroted yet another voice behind them. Felix and the others turned to see a short woman with blue stripes in her hair wearing a Team Rocket uniform. "I'm pretty sure the uniform speaks for themselves, kid." Sure enough, under the others' jackets was the Team Rocket uniform, giant red 'R' and all.

"Oh! Almost forgot my manners," the psychic woman giggled. "We know your names, so it's only fair that you know ours! "My name is Odette, that over there is Janet and these two here are Fred and Grant. Fred's the one holding your darling little Zorua. Seems we have you surrounded, doesn't it?"

Felix looked all around him. Thick trees to either side, each way of the road blocked by criminals. Could they escape into the woods? No, but they had to rescue Zorua!

"No you don't!" Raphael declared, then charged at the non-psychic woman. But in one fluid motion, she grabbed his wrist, bent it at a painful angle, and knocked him to the ground. "Don't try that again. kid," she warned, finally letting go of his wrist. "I've been trained by the best."

"I'm sure we can all resolve this peacefully," Mal said, hands raised in a calming gesture. "Is there something specific you want?"

"Peacefully?!" Sonia shouted. Felix grew even more frightened. He hadn't ever seen anyone this angry before… he could physically feel the hate emanating from her. "They're trying to steal my friend! I'm not just going to sit here and take this peace talk crap! You are not getting away with this, you thugs!" Without warning, Fred flew backwards into a tree, crying out in pain and dropping Zorua.

And then Sonia was in front of Fred with her hand crushing his bare throat, having teleported before him. The man let out an agonizing scream as Felix, in horror, was reminded of Sonia explaining why one shouldn't make direct contact with a psychic. So stunned by Sonia's sudden display of horrible ferocity, Felix merely watched, dazed, as Grant threw her off, only to clutch his skull and scream in terror. Janet reached for a gun. Sonia snapped it in half from where she stood. Odette said something, and then Sonia stumbled back, her fury diminished. A few more words were exchanged, then Odette teleported in front of Sonia. They vanished together.

Raphael nudged Felix, snapping him out of his daze. Felix noticed Cascade was in his battle-ready stance, facing Fred's Rattata. Seeming reluctant, Mal released Su Lin to battle against Grant's Zubat.

"We'll double team them," Mal said, steely determination in his voice. Felix envied him for that.

"I'll handle Janet," Raphael said, confident as ever.

"Let's do this." Felix tried as hard as he could to keep the fear out of his voice.

Fred and Grant snapped out two Poké Balls, identical smiles on their faces. The two called out their Pokémon in sync, throwing their Poké Balls in time with practiced ease.

"Go, Doku!" Fred called.

"Go, Tobu!" Grant cried.

A pair of Zubat materialised with a violent screech, beating their wings harshly in the air.

Together, the two Rocket grunts raised their arms and called out "Supersonic!"

Felix cried out, stumbling back. "Cascade, quick, use Sonic Boom!"

Cascade jumped, lashing his tails. The Sonic Boom caught one Supersonic head on, the two moves colliding with a violent eruption.

Mal leapt out of the way of the other one, his two Pokémon falling beside him. The teen looked to the bears, his expression grave. "Su Lin, use Tackle on the one on the left!"

"I'll get your silly bat faces!" Su Lin screeched, pushing off from the ground. The Zubat easily evaded, winging out of the way as though they did this sort of thing every day.

Felix turned to Cascade. "Back Su Lin up with Quick Attack! Aim for the other one!"

The Buizel nodded and launched forward, a blur in motion. The two Pokémon leapt and jabbed at the bats, but the Zubat just flew maddeningly in circles above their heads.

"Enough's enough." Fred smiled genially.

"Wing Attack!" The two Rocket Grunts called.

"Counterattack!" Felix cried.

"Dodge it!" Mal directed, sweeping his arm.

Cascade set his jaw and leapt at one Zubat, but crashed into the evading Su Lin. The two Zubat caught them in a pincer and struck, violently smashing into the two Pokémon and knocking them together.

"Bite!" Called the two Rocket grunts.

"Dodge it!" Felix yelped.

"Counterattack!" Mal called.

Cascade rolled out of the way, his movements fatigued and awkward. Su Lin tried to use Arm Thrust at the Zubat in front of her, but the two caught her in a pincer once more. Su Lin cried out, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Cascade, help her with Sonic Boom!" Felix cried. He regretted it a moment later.

"Dodge it!" Cried the two grunts.

As Cascade's tail lashed out, the two Zubat flashed upwards in one great downstroke of their wings. The Sonic Boom smashed into Su Lin, sweeping her into the tree beside Felix with a crash and a yell.

"They keep on using the pincer tactic!" Felix shouted to Mal, raising his voice with panic. "We have to avoid it! Keep Su Lin and Cascade separate—"

"What are you saying?!" Mal cried back, almost frantic. "You're speaking in Buizel!"

Felix stared at Mal, confused for a moment. When what the other boy had said caught up to him, he felt a sudden wave of heat flush through his cheeks. He hadn't even noticed.

Fred turned to his fellow. "Man, they sure are out of sync, huh?"

Grant nodded. "Yeah. Maybe we could teach 'em a little lesson?"

Fred rolled up his sleeves, and Grant crossed his arms. "Let's." the two said together. "Wing Attack!"

The two Zubat dove forward, wings angled, fangs bared.

"Attack!" Mal cried out.

"Which one?!" Felix and Cascade both cried back.

"Doku!"

"Which one's Doku?!"

"The one who listens to what Fred says!"

"They get commands and react _at the same time_ , how am I supposed to tell which one's Fred's?!"

The two Rocket grunts glanced at each other and shrugged. The two Zubat screeched to a halt in midair to give each other a look as well, raising their wings in a shrug-like gesture at the arguing humans.

"Kids." The Rocket grunts nodded solemnly.

Felix felt humiliation rise up again. "They attacked and they would've hit because of us arguing. We just have to stay focused."

"Right, then." Mal set his jaw. "Su Lin, Arm Thrust!"

As Su Lin leapt forward, Felix took a moment to catch up. "Uh, Bui bui buizel zel— I mean, use Quick Attack!"

Cascade rushed forward, ready to fight, but Su Lin had already leapt up, poised for action.

"Leech Life!" Grant called. The Zubat Su Lin hadn't been targeting suddenly swept at her, smashing into her midair and throwing her off course. As the pair tumbled into the ground, the Zubat on top, the Zubat's move did its job; already tired, Su Lin fell limp.

Panic was making Felix's breath come quickly, his head light. As Mal fumbled for a Poké Ball to get Su Lin to safety, Felix changed gears. "Change of plan— protect Su Lin!"

Cascade's Quick Attack changed direction, flashing at Grant's Zubat, Tobu. Tobu screeched in shock as Cascade hit, sending the bat flying away. Cascade spread his arms and planted his feet, standing firmly in front of Su Lin.

Mal finally got the Poké Ball out and recalled Su Lin. He turned to Teddi, breathing hard. "Teddi, can you do this?"

The Teddiursa nodded hesitantly, but moved forward, baring his claws.

"Scratch!" Mal commanded.

Teddi's eyes narrowed, his claws extending. Running up to gain momentum, the little bear jumped, his claws glinting.

"Quick Attack again!" Felix called. Cascade flashed to Teddi's side, the two Pokémon set to hit their marks.

"Astonish!" Fred directed. One Zubat let out an ear-piercing screech, diving at Cascade. The Zubat struck the Buizel in the jaw, knocking him back and into the ground. Fatigued, Cascade's muscles shook as he tried to push himself up.

"Remember that one," Mal called. "That's four moves from each of them, and the point of divergence is Astonish and Leech Life; I'm willing to bet these two haven't trained their Pokémon for more than four moves." He raised his voice, speaking to Cascade as well. "Now we can get better strategies going! Just keep your eye on that one and you'll be attacking Doku! Teddi and I will take—"

The corner of Felix's eye caught Cascade dodging out of the way of an attack. "We don't have the time!" He turned back to the battle. "Cascade, use Growl!"  
Cascade took in a deep breath and let out a loud and sharp bark, his aura flaring and twisting. It hit the two Zubat, making them recoil and shudder as their aura was attacked.

To Felix's shock, Fred nodded, seemingly pleased. "Yeah! Now you two are getting some strategy going!"

Grant grinned. "Heh, observant and finally using tactics? You may actually have a future!"

Dismay flashed across Mal's face. "Must we really battle? I'm sure we can sort this out without conflict!"

Grant glanced at Fred, a look of mock confusion on his face. "Oh, can we, Fred? D'you think we really could?"

Fred's features also twisted in exaggerated confusion, the grunt tipping his head to the side. "Hmm, I dunno, Grant; you think Janette'd let us?"

The two shook their heads together.

"Sorry kids." Fred raised his hands, palms to the sky. "Not an option."

Grant pointed at Cascade. "That Buizel's on his last legs; let's get 'im!"

Fred grinned. "Got it! You keep the Teddiursa occupied with Supersonic; Doku, Bite!"

While Teddi ran in circles with his arms over his head, dodging the Supersonic attacks, Cascade raised his arms to block Doku's bite. Doku hit hard, making the extremely tired out Cascade fall to his knees. Doku terrorised him with moves over and over until Cascade fell to the ground, trying to push himself up. A Supersonic finally struck Teddi, sending him stumbling and falling, blinking and shaking his head.

Mal had managed to somewhat keep his cool the whole time, if a bit flustered. But now he was frantic, panicking. "Oh, Arceus; Teddi, please! I know you can do it!"

Felix simply stood, frozen, not knowing what to do. His heart beat loudly in his chest. All he could think of was the terrifying possibility that he almost didn't want to consider.

 _What happens when we lose?_


	5. Gardevoir's Love

_What happens when we lose?_

Sonia blowing up, apparently.

Felix couldn't remember what happened, precisely—when the battle ended and something else began. But Cascade had been running, and Sonia had burst out of the trees, and everything around him has started shaking until Fred and Grant and their Pokémon had been flung away and oh Arceus was Sonia going to be okay and Felix's head was pounding with pressure—

But at the price of quite a lot of trees, the Rocket members were gone. Everything suddenly faded, like an explosion which had decided halfway through that it wanted to go the other way. Felix's ears rung, but all the pressure had disappeared. All that was left was Sonia, staring down the barrel of fallen trees in a line in front of her.

Sonia was crumpled, her small frame looking even smaller. Defeated.

Felix automatically felt for Cascade, hands trembling. "Cascade? A-are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Cascade placed his paw on Felix's side, voice steady. "Is Sonia okay?"

Felix turned back to her. She hadn't moved. "S-Sonia?" Felix ventured. "Are you… Okay?"

There was a whisper of sound. Felix drew closer, straining to hear.

The whisper came again—but this time, he could hear it. "Where's Zorua?"

The panic came back.

"Oh Arceus," Sonia said. Her voice was stronger now.

Felix looked at Cascade. The Buizel looked back, equally lost.

"Zorua!" Sonia screamed, making Felix's heart jump. "Zorua!"

Felix was struggling to keep his thinking coherent. He wasn't really thinking as Sonia ran off, stumbling, and Cascade tried to talk to him through the fog, and Sonia returned with a twisted black furry form in her arms.

That's when the spell broke. _Zorua_.

"Everyone. Put your hands on my shoulders." Sonia's voice cracked. "And don't let go."

Mal nodded sombrely and clasped Sonia's arm, trusting. Felix did so in a daze, Cascade doing the same beside him with a lethargic lift of a paw. Felix couldn't think straight while looking at the prone, slowly breathing body in Sonia's arms. "What happened to Zorua?"

Sonia didn't answer him. She instead turned to Raphael, and attempt at stoicism crossing her expression. "Raphael, I am happy to leave without you. Zorua takes priority."

Raphael edged forward, distrusting. "What're you going to do?"

"Teleport us to Viridian City's Pokémon Centre." Sonia's reply then was when the barriers broke, and Felix could hear the misery in his companion's voice.

Raphael slowly put his hand on her shoulder. "Are you sure this is safe right now?"

"No." Sonia sniffled a little. "Oh. And don't throw up on me."

As Felix's heart started to pound, Raphael's face contorted in terror. "Wha—?!"

The world _snapped_.

From there, it was like the teleportation had left his brain trapped in limbo—the next day or so, if it was even a day, went by in an utter blur. He felt like a neurotic zombie as he tried to split his worries between Cascade, Zorua, a catatonic Sonia, delivering a testimony to the police... Felix felt himself shut down. He responded on autopilot.

When Zorua got back into it, he found he did too—by the time Sonia woke up again, Cascade had gotten Felix back into his normal, happy self.

After Sonia came downstairs and Zorua turned into a fanged illusion of her to be greeted, Mal gestured Felix over to a table booth. "Give her some privacy, perhaps."

As they walked over, Cascade poked Felix in the side. "Maybe you should think about getting back into things with Raph?" Cascade offered. "Normalize everything again. You wanted to test out Raphael's weak point, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah!" Felix clapped a hand to his forehead. "I completely forgot!"

Mal looked at him strangely—when Felix again realised, belatedly, that he had probably spoken in Buizel. He reverted to English to inform Mal. "After Sonia's done with whatever that is, I'm thinking of getting her and Raphael to battle—I have a theory on a weak point he might have, and Sonia can help me confirm it."

Mal nodded.

After Sonia came over, Felix was itching to ask her—Mal reminded him to give Sonia a little space first. Sheepish, he waited—and was very surprised when Sonia spoke up.

"Where's Raphael?

Felix was so relieved that the pressure had burst into conversation, he immediately started speaking. "He's outside training." Felix laughed a little, embarrassed to have replied so eagerly. "You have to give it to him and his Eevee— they're dedicated."

Sonia surprised him further by continuing the conversation. She agreed to battle, and didn't bite his head off for his admission that he'd done a little research into Psychics. She surprised him yet again when she admitted that she was Grade Alpha, the strongest grade a Psychic could possibly be.

Whatever. It didn't matter! She was still a friend, or going to be a friend at least; and that meant he wouldn't judge her for something like that. She was maybe a little scary, but—oh Arceus, was she reading those thoughts now too?

Felix distracted himself by calling Raphael over to battle, and checking every inch of Zorua for a possible injury. He _really_ didn't want her hurting herself battling Raph's Eevee, but Zorua was obstinate. At Mal and Sonia's reassurances, he relented, and settled back on the sidelines to watch the battle—well, mostly Zorua.

Felix hated himself for realizing it at the time he did, but there was no way to deny it. As he carefully watched Zorua for deeper injuries to reveal themselves in her battle against Lune, he couldn't help but realize something very special about those two foxes.

He shipped them.

It just had to be so! Fake Tears had deeper aura-based effects than just pure guile, but there was definitely some true hesitation and guilt in Lune's eyes. Lune's pure revulsion in seeing the transformed Zorua so hurt and defenseless just sealed it for the breeder. Even if they didn't know it yet, even if their trainers denied it and hated one another, dammit, Zorua and Lune belonged together!

But as can be expected, their non-breeder trainers couldn't see what he did, so Felix would wait until the evidence was undeniable to tell Raphael and Sonia. In the mean time, that last Extrasensory might have really done some damage. He was still nervous about Zorua and glanced in her direction. He decided her checkup could wait; she looked fine.

Felix and Cascade ran across the Pokémon Center's flat dirt battlefield and found Lune in the comforting arms of Raphael, beneath the tree Lune had fallen through. The little Eevee was battered and bruised, but based on his expression it seemed most of the damage was emotional.

"Hey," Felix called softly in the Eevee language, gently stroking the fox to find where he hurt most. "You did good out there."

"I failed," Lune replied grumpily. "I let Raphael down, losing to that stupid Zorua."

"What's he saying, Felix?"

"He's sorry to have failed you and let you down," Felix translated.

Raphael frowned, looking darkly serious. "No, Lune, you did everything you could. It's not your fault." He stood with Lune still cradled in his arms. Felix winced at the hateful glare he shot at Sonia as he marched up to her but followed him nonetheless.

"You read Lune's mind!" Raphael shouted. Felix groaned inwardly, but didn't interfere.

Sonia returned his glare with one just as cold. "And what gave you your newest ridiculous idea?"

Raphael jabbed a finger at Zorua. "How'd she know to do that illusion, huh?!"

Because Sonia told her to, Felix thought, resisting the urge to facepalm.

Sonia looked confused. "Because I directed her," she replied smoothly.

Exactly, Felix thought.

"Exactly!" Raphael echoed. "And where else would you get that except from Lune's head?!"

Sonia stepped closer to Raphael, her expression furious. She was so much shorter than Raph, but that didn't seem to bother her. "I didn't read his mind, you idiot," she insisted. "I got Zorua to use Fake Tears in conjunction with creating an illusion that made her look like a member of Lune's species. Looking like a member of the foe's species is a common illusion trick widely used by wild Zorua to deter attackers!"

Raphael persisted. "But she looked just like Sola!" That was a good point, Felix mentally conceded.

Sonia twitched. "The only Eevee she has to work with are Sola and Lune! Who else would she look like?!" ...Also a fair point.

Mal put a hand to Raphael's shoulder. "Raph, are you okay? This isn't about your losing, is it?"

"Of course it's not," Raphael growled. "I just don't want her poking around my mind or anyone else's!" He pointedly turned and began walking away. "Come on, Felix! Come on, Mal!" He called. "I got some battle training to do!"

Felix couldn't help but jump. "But we need to take Lune to Nurse Joy!" he cried, running up to him. Looking back, he noticed that Mal and Sonia were having a conversation. It looked pleasant enough, so Felix let them be.

"Raph, seriously, Lune's hurt. Making him train anyway will only make the injuries worse," he explained. Raphael ignored him and walked further across the field. Felix sighed, looking up at the boring grey sky. These were always his least favorite days, when it wasn't bright and sunny, but there wasn't any soft, soothing rain either. It matched his mood rather well, though-today was day after those Team Rocket grunts knocked out Cascade and almost kidnapped Zorua and worry still gnawed at the back of his mind.

Raphael didn't stop until he was on the other side of the field, as far from Sonia as he could get. He deposited Lune on the ground; the Eevee winced as bruised limbs were made to walk again. Felix felt a fervor start to build within him. He hated the sight of a hurt Pokémon. Once a battle ended, they should be immediately praised and cared for, having put their health and safety on the line for their humans' sport.

Raphael reached for Sola's Pokéball, but Felix snatched his wrist. "Raph, no. Lune is hurt. What do you think you're doing? Sonia's done enough damage-are you really going to make it worse on your poor Eevee?"

Raphael blinked, his expression softening. He looked to Lune, who was determinedly standing with perfect posture despite his shaking limbs, with some slight surprise. "Lune…" He shook his head, scooping up his Pokémon. "I'm sorry; I don't know what came over me. I was just so angry at Sonia… I didn't want to lose to her ever again."

Felix smiled. "You didn't want to waste a single moment?"

"Yeah. I guess so." Already Raph was jogging back to the Pokémon Center. "I'm still furious with her, though! Do you know how many times I've lost to my age group in the past three years?"

"Never?" Felix ventured.

"Twice. You defeated Sola and Sonia defeated Lune. But yes-I have never lost before this week." The automatic door slid open to admit them entry into the main lobby of the Pokémon Center. Soft red benches and white tables lined the walls where trainers were grooming or feeding their Pokémon or enjoying a meal alongside them. Nurse Joy's desk was in the middle of the room with staircases on either side of her that led to the dormitories. "I just don't understand what happened," Raphael continued, "You're a breeder, for crying out loud! You don't even try!"

"I thought it was pretty obvious," Felix replied. "But just to be sure, I wanted Sonia to battle you as well. The thing is, we both hit your weakness."

"Oh, dear; I suppose you lost your battle?" Nurse Joy interrupted, rushing up to Raphael with Chansey close behind.

"Yes, ma'am," Raphael replied grumpily. He then offered Lune and his Pokeball. "Could you take care of Lune? He deserves a good rest."

Nurse Joy smiled, gingerly accepting the Eevee and Pokéball. "Don't you worry, Raphael. We'll bring him to full health in no time at all!"

As Felix and Raphael gave their thanks, Nurse Joy turned and walked away, already asking Chansey for a variety of supplies. Raphael then moved to sit on one of the soft benches and Felix followed suit, sitting Cascade in his lap.

"What did you mean by hit my weakness?" Raphael asked. "I know you both have an edge over me, but have you pinned down where I can improve?"

"I had my suspicions that I told you about earlier, but seeing your battle with Sonia confirmed it. You rely very heavily on countering your opponents' strategies, on turning their moves against them."

Raphael raised an eyebrow. "Of course. That's what any good battler would do."

"No, but you're… overcompensating. You don't have a good reaction time. You need to take in everything your opponent does before you can use it against them, but if they don't speak, you can't just react to that immediate move." Raphael nodded slowly, which Felix took as a good sign. "You're trying to play it like chess. Normally it works, but you spend so much time laying elaborate albeit skillful traps that, at least against us, you can't take it one move at a time."

"Okay…" Raphael seemed unsure on how to handle the criticism. "So what do I do?"

Felix smiled and sighed, rubbing Cascade's inflatable collar. "Honestly? Keep battling us. Keep losing over and over. Each time you dive into your weakness, you'll get a little deeper until reaching the bottom is as easy as jumping in."

Raphael groaned and rubbed his temples. "I was afraid you'd say that. I don't want to lose to you over and over, and I especially don't want to lose to… her."

"Sonia has a name, you know."

"Not helping, Felix!" Raphael snapped. "But you're sure there's no other way?"

Felix shrugged. "You tell me. You're the battling master here. I just lucked out on being your weak spot."

"I don't… I just… Ugh, you're right." Raphael sighed in defeat. "I just need to keep practicing, keep… losing."

Felix clapped him on the shoulder. "It'll be okay! As long as you expect to lose, it won't bother you, right?"

"Of course you'd say that," Raph muttered. "But it just doesn't work like that."

"Really?" Felix persisted. "Why not? Oh, hey, Mal!"

The quiet boy had come back inside and was walking towards them, Teddi and Su Lin close behind. "Hello Felix, Raph," he replied softly. "I hope I didn't interrupt anything?"

"'Course not!" Felix exclaimed, shifting over to make room for Mal. "You're welcome to come and talk; right, Raph?"

"Yeah, of course you can!" Raphael agreed, patting the empty seat. "You're always welcome."

"Thank you both," Mal said, taking the seat between Felix and Raph. Like Felix he set his Pokémon on his lap. "Although I was wondering if either of you would like to come to the Trainer House. Perhaps we can all learn something from the way more experienced trainers battle."

"Sounds good to me," Felix agreed. "I probably really need the advice."

"And I'm not too prideful to admit I could use the help, too," Raphael said, somewhat defensively. He stood up. "Should we go now?"

Felix shrugged and stood as well, Cascade hanging in his arms. "I'm gonna wait on Lune regardless, but you can go on ahead if you like."

Raphael blinked once. "Oh… right. Lune." He groaned as he fell back on the bench. "Today has just not gone my way."

"Hey. Don't worry about it," Mal said. "We know you're not used to losing."

"I really should be better than this," Raphael replied. "But no, I keep screwing up everything today."

"You're just having a bad day, that's all!" Felix joined in. "Once Lune's all fixed up we can head out and you can just relax and watch the battles, no stress, nothing more to screw up!"

"Speaking of Lune," Mal gestured to an approaching Nurse Joy with Lune walking beside her. There was no trace left of any injury, Felix noticed. The Eevee could probably get right back into battling. Once Lune caught sight of Raphael, he dashed towards him with a happy yip, leaping right up into his arms.

"I think we'll call it a day on training, Lune," Raphael said, petting the Eevee. "Instead we're going to go watch the battles at the Trainer House! Sound fun?" Lune nodded cheerfully in response.

"So it's decided, then?" Mal asked. Felix and Raphael both voiced their agreement. "Glad to hear it. Come on; I know the way."

The Trainer House was a moderately-sized building, being just one story tall and a little less wide than the Pokémon Center. It was simple, wooden, and rectangular, with a green roof and a couple of chimneys. Behind the building was a wide, flat, fenced-in field much like the battlefield at the Pokémon Center. Many battles were already underway, with Pokémon leaping high into the air to unleash powerful attacks that Felix had only seen before online and on television.

The group of Felix, Raphael, and Mal entered the building and were greeted by a receptionist who bowed and said, "Welcome to the Trainer House! How may I be of assistance?" The thin lady wore a grey business jacket over a white collared blouse and matching dress skirt. Her black hair fell behind her in wavy cascades. Behind her much of the building was obscured by bookshelves, but Felix could see tables of trainers reading from heavy books, discussing strategies, or explaining tactics directly to their Pokémon.

"We're new trainers who were hoping to watch the professionals battle," Raphael said smoothly. "Are they just through the back door there?" He pointed to the glass door on the far side of the room by the staircase leading into the basement.

"Yes, sir!" The lady nodded. "But as a rule, trainers here will not battle anyone with less than seven badges. It's not official, but more inexperienced trainers just tend to gather around the Pokémon Center's battlefield, while those on the way to Indigo gather here."

"Believe me, I have no intention of fighting these guys," Raphael replied with a short laugh. "I just want to learn a thing or two! Come on, guys; let's watch some battling." Felix and Mal followed Raphael through the building and out the back door, stepping back into the glaring sunlight. Immediately Raphael and Mal became entranced by a duel between a Machamp and a Gallade, but out of the corner of his eye Felix noticed something.

Turning to the sight, his suspicions were confirmed. As a Mightyena struggled to stand, its trainer kicked it over and shouting something. Felix could make out more as he rushed over. "...to this team and to me! I can't believe how weak you really are. I've spent six months of my life raising you, caring for you, letting you share my food and shelter and this is how you repay me?" The male trainer, about a year older than Felix, looked livid.

"I'm… I'm sorry, honest!" the Mightyena whimpered, attempting to stand. Her trainer responded to her plaintive cries with another brutal kick. It was then that Felix noticed the canine's torn pelt and shuddering muscles-had the Mightyena just battled?!

Felix came up behind the trainer, who didn't notice him. He wore a simple t-shirt and jeans and had toned muscles from months of hiking. On his belt were six Pokéballs and on his back was a large canvas backpack.

Just as he raised his boot to kick his own Pokémon once again, Felix quickly kicked the trainer in his side, knocking him to the ground. Felix glared at the trainer as he scrambled back to his feet. He tried to punch Felix in the nose, but the breeder stepped out of the way, so the hit glanced off his cheek. "What the hell is your problem?!" the trainer demanded.

"What the hell is your problem?" Felix spat back, rubbing his bruised cheek. "Your Mightyena sacrificed her health and safety for the sake of a petty battle and you're beating her for it?!"

"Trainer, please," the Pokémon spoke up, "don't make my master any angrier."

"Oh, shut up!" the trainer shouted. Returning to Felix, he said in a low voice, "Listen, you: I don't know who you are or what the hell you think you're doing, but you have no right to tell me what to do."

"I think I do," Felix replied. "Pokémon abuse is illegal, punishable by revocation of one's trainer license, one's team, and even time in prison."

"I'm not abusing it!" the trainer cried, indignant. "I'm giving it tough love."

"It? You don't even know she's a her?" Felix tried his best to suppress his anger, clenching and unclenching his fists.

"It, her, whatever. But I can't believe you would accuse me, a trainer of seven badges, as abusive. I ought to report you for harassment!"

Felix tilted his head. "We'll see." Switching to the Mightyena language, he said, "Speak freely, dear. He can't understand us like this." The Mightyena glanced at him with hopeful red eyes. Her trainer seemed somewhere between shock and fury.

"You can't be serious," he said, possibly to himself.

"I… he…" the Mightyena began, but sank back down, her ears back and her head between her paws.

"Let's start with a yes or no," Felix continued in the Mightyena's language, standing between her and the trainer. "Is your trainer abusive to you?"

"No! He-he… I don't know…" the Mightyena replied, her voice dying out.

"He can't understand either of us, trust me," Felix repeated. "He can't hurt you for anything you say, because I won't tell him."

The Pokémon seemed hesitant, her tail brushing up the dirt and her eyes darting between her trainer and this unfamiliar boy. "He… gives me food and water, and sometimes takes me to the Pokémon Center when I'm in bad shape," she began.

"Why hasn't he today?"

"Because… I lost." Her tail wagged faster and her words seemed somewhat strained. "He says if he makes it really hurt to lose, we'll try harder and win the next time."

Felix could feel his angry crystallizing into cold, hard ice. "And do you believe him?"

"Of… of course I do! My trainer knows what's best for me." Felix couldn't help but feel like the Mightyena was trying to convince herself as much as Felix.

"How long has this been going on?" Felix asked.

"Ever since he caught me as a Poochyena." Her voice softened a little as she said that. She must really want a trainer if she's stayed with this tyrant for six months, Felix reasoned.

"And his other Pokémon?"

"He's… certainly fair," the Mightyena replied. "Sometimes he has us attack the losers for him, when he's especially angry."

Felix could hardly believe what he was hearing. He continued to stare at the abusive trainer, who could only stare back angrily, paralyzed by Felix's fervor. "You can find another trainer, you know," Felix offered, forcing his voice to stay soft. "There are plenty of people who would be willing to take in a strong, courageous Mightyena like you, and they would always praise you and treat your injuries immediately after any battle, win or lose. Your trainer would be a constant source of comfort, someone you can always turn to whenever you need cheering up. You don't have to stay with him."

The Mightyena got teary-eyed for a moment, but blinked it away and shook her shaggy head. "I can't. He's my trainer. I can't just abandon him. And my friends, my fellow Pokémon…"

Felix made up his mind. Tapping a few buttons on his Pokétch's touch screen, he called the Viridian City police.

"There's a badly abused Mightyena here at the Trainer House," he reported in English. "She has heavy injuries and that her trainer refuses to treat, and I believe this has gone on for months."

"What do you think you're doing?!" the trainer shouted, reaching for the Pokétch.

Felix shoved him away with all the anger he had built up, knocking him off-balance. He scrambled back to his feet, but Felix held him back with a hand. "Now stay right here, asshole. Running away now would be an obstruction of justice and another crime you have to answer for. If you're lucky, they might just take away your team and trainer license."

He seethed with rage, but remained where he stood. Behind Felix, the Mightyena began to cry.

A few hours later, Felix found himself at a table with Officer Jenny in the Viridian City police office. "Doyle's team all corroborated your story, Felix. Months or years of cruel treatment, even if they didn't know it. We've taken his trainer license, his Pokémon are being cared for by Nurse Joy, and Doyle himself is facing a trial to see if he deserves additional punishment."

"Thank you, Officer Jenny. And just to be sure, you're looking for new homes for all his Pokémon? I asked-none of them want to return to the wild."

"That's right." Jenny nodded. "We'll do our best to keep them together, but I can't promise you it'll work out that way."

Felix nodded somberly. "I wish I could just adopt all of them, but… they've already cleared seven gyms." A trainer on a journey isn't allowed to accept a Pokémon that has cleared harder gyms than the trainer himself.

"Don't worry about it," the policewoman insisted. "You've already done far more than anyone else has for them. Why don't you go and visit them now? I'm sure they'd love to see you."

No sooner did Felix step into the Pokémon center than he found himself tackled by an overjoyed Mightyena.


	6. Zekrom's Aegis

Felix turned over the card in his hand again and again. It was the one Officer Jenny gave to him soon after she arrived to help the Mightyena and her team: a business card for an organization called "Team Plasma".

Felix hadn't heard of them before now and neither had Cascade. All he knew was that they were a relatively new group that was all for Pokémon rights and Officer Jenny thought he'd fit right in. So he walked through the streets of Viridian with Cascade at his side, wondering aloud in Buizel what he'd find in this eerily named group.

"Well, what's the worst that could happen?" Cascade said. "We could get kidnapped, but we've dealt with that already."

Felix winced as he relived those harrowing moments. "Not funny, dude."

Cascade looked up to his trainer with an apologetic smile. "Sorry; I'm just trying to make light of this whole thing. I'm a little anxious myself, if I'm honest. But Officer Jenny sounded like a nice person and it'd be pretty bold for a criminal organization to give police their business cards."

The absurdity of that idea made Felix snort.

"Ah, that's better!" Cascade laughed. "But overall I'm feeling pretty confident. You should be too."

Felix scratched the otter's head. "I'm not worried, honest. All I meant to say was that their name sounds a lot like Team Rocket and while that does weird me out I'm sure it's a coincidence. Anyway, we're just about there. Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Cascade murmured.

Felix grinned and scooped the Buizel up into his arms. "Sounds like somebody isn't all that confident after all," he teased, tickling Cascade's belly.

"H-hey!" Cascade complained as he wriggled and laughed. "Put me down!"

"Not until you admit that you're scared!" Felix demanded playfully, still scratching away.

"I'm not scared, honest!" Cascade insisted, still laughing uncontrollably. "C'mon, don't do this, Felix!"

"Alright, alright." Felix relented and set his Pokémon back on the ground. The two rounded the final corner and walked the final block to the meeting hall on the card. Automatic doors bid them entry and a helpful flyer on the receptionist's desk informed Felix that the Plasma meeting was already underway and "visitors, human and Pokémon alike" were more than welcome.

So after asking for directions, Felix and Cascade walked through the hallway until they came across a door with the Plasma logo, a half white and half black shield with a stylized blue "P" and electric spark, taped to the window. He pushed the door open.

Felix found that the center of the large room was devoid of furniture (all the chairs and tables pushed against the walls) but filled with a group of twenty or so trainers and their Pokémon. The older trainers sat beside their Charizard or Nidoqueen or whoever had become their close partner, and the trainers just starting their journey were petting the starter Pokémon in their lap. Two of them were standing by the far wall and wore a strange uniform of sorts, but all of them seemed too engrossed in their conversations to notice Felix's entry.

"Hey, welcome!" a tall man by the door called out in a Unovian accent. He wore that same strange uniform, which at first glance appeared to be a medieval costume: a black full body suit covered by a silver-blue "chestplate" and white tunic open at the sides which had the Plasma logo on the chest. He also wore large, silver-blue gloves styled like gauntlets and knee-length boots of the same color. A hood rested between his shoulder Team Plasma uniform? He offered a handshake as he continued, "Don't think I've seen you around here; what brings you to Team Plasma?"

Felix smiled politely and shook his thickly gloved hand. "Curiosity, for the most part; Officer Jenny said I might like it here and gave me one of your cards. My name's Felix, by the way, and this is my Buizel, Cascade."

"Hello!" Cascade said, waving up to the man.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both," he replied, beaming, "My name is Justin Traye; I'm Team Plasma's Viridian representative. So tell me, Felix—do you care about Pokémon?"

"Absolutely, sir!" Felix replied without hesitation. "Pokémon are just as important to me as my own species."

"Then you must hate Kanto's backwards pro-trainer laws like I do, right?" he replied, the disgust in his voice quite noticeable.

Felix frowned. "Er… 'pro-trainer laws'? Sorry if I'm not good with politics; I'm from Sinnoh and I've spent most of my life studying Pokémon nature, not human rules."

"Well, I'd be happy to tell you. Just to warn you, though; it's not pretty." Traye exhaled in preparation. Taking another breath, he asked, "So you're from Sinnoh, right? What would happen if a trainer went off-route to catch a Pokémon?"

"The Pokémon Rangers would apprehend them, of course, and release all the Pokémon they caught illegally," Felix explained. Traye said nothing for a moment as the room quieted down, after which sudden horror made Felix's heart sink. "Wait, you're saying there's no law like that in Kanto?!"

"Precisely. A wild Pokémon can't stay off a route to avoid capture. In fact, they basically have no say in whether they're captured at all in Kanto. They treat the poor things like animals here…"

"But they're not!" Felix cried. "I've read plenty of studies and tests and they've basically all concluded that xenointelligence does not imply a lack of sapience. They deserve all the rights a human has, if you ask me."

Around Felix, people and Pokémon turned to watch the conversation. Traye smiled. "You're a pretty bright kid, aren't you? Let me play devil's advocate and see how far you can go." The Plasma member cleared his throat. "Pokémon in captivity act far more like humans than wild Pokémon do. This is, of course, because in the wild Pokémon are reduced to their basic instincts and they need a human's guidance to be enlightened."

"So, human instincts are considered 'enlightened'?" Cascade asked.

Felix grinned at his Pokémon, then translated Cascade's response. "Human behavior is not inherently 'enlightened'—science and civilization are just human instincts, albeit very sophisticated ones."

"You're saying all of this," Traye gestured to the building around them. "This marvel of modern engineering, is just an instinct."

"Well, it's the human instinct to gather and pass on knowledge that led to its creation, yes."

"But doesn't that make humans special, in a way? No other species on this planet can do so much, can change the world in such a sophisticated way."

Felix hesitated. Cascade picked up the slack. "What if I just don't care? My priorities are eating tasty food, exploring, and playing with my friends. I don't care about all this amazing technology—if you lived in the wild with me, Felix, I think I'd be just as happy. Different species have different values, you know."

"Yes, that's exactly right, Cascade," Felix replied, brightening. "Different species have different values. Only humans as a species really crave knowledge, creation and technology, and only _some_ Pokémon would agree. Hence the routes-only law!"

Traye nodded in approval. "You really know how Pokémon think, do you? And you can understand your Buizel?"

Impulsively, Felix showed off. Speaking in Buizel, he replied, "That's only the half of it, actually."

Traye looked shocked. Further into the room, a Charizard let out a strange roar that might have been a gasp and more quietly other Pokémon voiced their surprise. Hushed conversation immediately filled the room.

"You can't be serious," Traye replied, wide-eyed. "You can _speak_ Pokémon too?!"

"To about three hundred species, yeah," Felix replied in Charizard, making him cough. Arceus, he forgot how much the draconic growl hurt his throat. But he couldn't help but grin when the Charizard echoed Traye's words. He had to admit, showing off was too fun.

"Oh, speak English!" Traye insisted, laughing incredulously. Turning to Felix's audience, he asked, "And can a Pokémon confirm he's not just saying nonsense?" Many Pokémon nodded and voiced their testimony in response, foremost of which being that very surprised Charizard.

Felix switched to English. "I can speak and understand about three hundred languages—"

"Three hundred!"

Felix grinned shyly. "Including just about all Pokémon in Kanto and Sinnoh and a couple odd ones like Zorua."

"And here I was, thinking N was special…" Traye shook his head. "Your accents are flawless, by the way." The man then looked at the clock on the wall and started. "Well, Pokémon whisperer or not, we have to start the meeting! Today we're talking about Pokémon rights and how it relates to breeding—"

"Would now be a good time to mention I'm also a fully certified breeder?"

Traye blinked once. "Okay, now you're really pulling my leg."

Felix retrieved his laminated breeder's card from his wallet in response, and the Plasma representative fell speechless. Eventually he tersely told Felix to take a seat on the floor as he made his way up to the front of the room behind the podium. All eyes were on Felix and Cascade as they sat near the front-left corner of the group and it was all of two seconds before the trainers near him asked him to be a translator for their Pokémon, while those Pokémon themselves had more than a few questions for Cascade about his trainer. They would have gladly accepted had Traye not told them to settle down.

As it turns out, breeding laws in Kanto were just as horrible as their route laws, as Traye and the similarly-dressed trainers explained. The only requirements for two Pokémon to be bred were that their trainers consented to it, the Pokémon were in the same Egg Group, and they were of opposite genders. Beyond that, anything was fair game. The penalty for exhausting a mother with repeating breedings was tiny, and Pokémon had no choice but to agree. Felix found himself standing part way through, mortified that any self-respecting region would allow this to happen.

There was a lot of confusion on how breeding worked exactly, so after Traye finished introducing the issue Felix offered to explain. With Traye's permission, Felix gave an overview of how breeding works: both Pokémon, through poorly understood processes, offer up a piece of their aura. The father's aura gets absorbed into the mother's, regardless of typing, and this beyond all reason causes the aura to condense into an Egg. The Pokémon inside is also fully developed, if immature. Pokémon are also okay with breeding for the most part, though it's uncomfortable to breed with strangers according to the Pokémon Felix has spoken to.

"Don't the parents want to keep their offspring?" one trainer asked.

"It's… complicated." Felix replied. "Again, it's not nearly as intimate as sex is, especially for humans. But yeah, almost all breeding couples insist that their child ends up in good hands."

"What if they _do_ want to keep the offspring, though?" Another trainer this time.

Felix seemed to sag. "That's… always a terrible situation to be in. In Sinnoh, Pokémon have to agree of their own free will to give up the Egg to a specified person before the breeding happens, so if a Pokémon knows they'll be too attached they just refuse to breed. But occasionally, Pokémon breeding for the first time get really attached to the Egg afterwards and, well…" Felix sighed. "Sometimes it ends well, sometimes it doesn't."

"But there's no such law in Kanto," on of Traye's assistants reminded him. "Breeding Pokémon don't agree to anything."

Felix's heart sank further and he put a hand over his eyes. "Arceus, we need to fix this mess."

Then the questions and debate on how to fix said mess began, and while he kept that melancholy for those poor Pokémon in his heart, Felix still felt like a celebrity. After his demonstrations earlier, his opinion might as well had been law among his fellow trainers. Only some of the older ones had the courage to challenge the breeder's claims, and whether Felix was right or wrong he loved the discourse.

Cascade was also able to help out as well, the little Buizel explaining from a Pokémon's point of view what breeding was like and how they can guide their trainers into making healthy choices for both of them. Many of the Pokémon seemed surprised that such a mature Buizel hadn't evolved yet, so sheepishly Cascade replied that he hadn't spent much time physically training, and so he wasn't strong enough to evolve.

Traye went on to point out that as trainers were by far the biggest commissioners of breeding in Kanto, each and every person here held a surprising amount of weight when it came to how breeding would be done. In addition to campaigning directly for more pro-Pokémon laws, they could all spread the word about the routine Pokémon abuse in the industry to their fellow trainers and refuse to commission abusive breeders. He asked who would support Team Plasma in this crusade, and he was met with a loud cheer.

And then the meeting was over. Most of the trainers got right to work rearranging the furniture back to normal, but Felix was too bombarded with requests to translate the others' Pokémon to help. So instead he helped trainers to realize that their Pokémon had an ache somewhere, or hated their clothes, or just wanted to voice a complaint or compliment towards their trainer. All the while he gently encouraged that they learn to communicate better on their own, and that words are very rarely necessary in this sort of relationship if their hearts were close enough.

Little by little the room emptied until it was just Traye and Felix. The Team Plasma member just took a moment to shake his head at Felix, even as he beamed. "I just can't believe you, Felix. I've never met a kid your age so passionate and yet so knowledgeable about Pokémon rights. And you can speak to Pokémon in their own languages _and_ you're a fully certified breeder… what makes you so special?"

Felix took a moment to think, then replied, "Let's just say I'm… particularly close to Pokémon."

"What, are you saying you're actually a Zoroark in disguise?" Traye laughed and ruffled Felix's hair, then turned around to take his huge, thick binder from the podium. "Well, you're the best damn Zoroark I've ever met if that's the case! Whatever you are, I've just got to ask—are you interested in joining Team Plasma?"

Felix's eyebrows raised. "Are you serious?"

"Quite serious, my friend," Traye replied, pulling out a few sheets of paper from his binder. It was almost inspiring how dexterous he was in those thick gauntlets. "Since you're just starting your journey, all you have to do is fill out this paperwork, stay in contact with your superiors—like me—and attend rallies and meetings like this for whatever city you happen to be in. And besides, you can quit at any time, no questions asked."

"And how much does it cost?" asked Felix as he accepted the forms and a pen.

"Cost?" Traye snorted. "No, _we_ pay _you_! In return for your hard work in making Kanto a better place for Pokémon, we're willing to offer you twenty-five hundred Poké a month. Not much, I know, but climb the ranks and your salary will climb as well." He grinned. "Heck, if you ever get tired of being a prodigy breeder I bet you'd easily find a career in Plasma. As much as we try to make Pokémon our equals, it's rare for a human to have such an intuitive knowledge of how they think and that's extremely valuable to Team Plasma."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Traye." Felix was grinning from ear to ear. "I've got one question for you, though."

"Go ahead, shoot."

"Are you _sure_ Team Plasma isn't like Team Rocket?"

Traye gave a strained smile. "You know, I thought you'd be the first person _not_ to ask that when they signed up… ah, well. Anyway, when Ghetsis founded this organization in Unova five years ago, Team Rocket was basically unknown in Kanto. So really, the naming is just a coincidence."

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," Felix replied. Then he turned to Cascade and spoke in Buizel. "What do you think, should we sign up?"

Cascade let out a short "bui" of contemplation. "So… it's getting paid a bit of money every week to attend more things like this and work towards making Kanto a better place for Pokémon. I can't see any harm in it… let's do it, Felix!"

"Looks like we agree!" Felix exclaimed in English. He quickly sat at a table and filled out the forms. It was mostly just basic information about Felix and then legalese asking for a signature, so only a couple minutes had passed before he handed the paperwork back to Traye.

"Thank you very much, Felix," the man replied, sliding the forms back into his binder. Felix in turn thanked Traye for the opportunity to join and make a difference, and then he left with his Buizel close behind.

Traye shut the door behind him. Now alone in the room, he ungloved his left hand and turned on the Xtransceiver that it had hidden. Pressing a few buttons, he made a call to his superior. "Aldith?" he said as the woman's face appeared on the screen. "It's Traye. Just got the most interesting kid to join the Team; trust me, even Ghetsis is gonna want to hear about this…"

Felix hummed a happy little tune as he entered the Pokémon Center, the lobby suffused with the orange light of sunset. Raphael and Sonia were nowhere to be seen, but Mal was reading quietly on one of the Center's tablets, Teddi and Su Lin stealing bits of food from each other's bowls on the table beside him. He skipped up to his companion, still wearing that wide smile from the Plasma meeting.

"Mal!" he called, getting the teen's attention. Beside him, Cascade climbed up to the table and tried persuading the bears for some of their dinner. "I just joined the most amazing group today!" Felix exclaimed.

Mal blinked once, then shut down the tablet and set it aside. "Did you? What is it called?"

"It's this really cool Pokémon rights group called Team Plasma; have you heard of them?"

At the mention of the name "Team Plasma", Mal seemed to involuntarily flinch. He seemed too stunned to reply.

That made Felix grin. "Based on that expression, I'll hazard a guess that you've always wanted to join them?"

Mal's expression shifted to one of concern, then confusion. He looked away, eyes darting back and forth. "Team Plasma, you said?"

"That's right! Cool, huh?"

"Do they have a uniform? Grey, sort of like… like—"

"A knight cosplay?"

"Yes, that…" Mal shifted uncomfortably on the bench.

Felix frowned in turn, and Cascade looked up at the humans, curious. "What's the matter? Mal, you're acting really weird."

"I just… Felix, I thought they were… what did you say they were again?"

"A Pokémon rights group. You know, the people who believe that Pokémon should be treated more fairly, like equals instead of just dumb animals?"

"Right… How did you meet them?"

"They held a conference of sorts in the Viridian City Meeting Hall, where they talked about all the injustices in the Kanto breeding laws, which at the moment are pretty disgusting if you ask me."

Mal seemed even more confused by this.

Felix sighed. "Come on, buddy! What's the matter? Are you like super pro-trainer or something?"

"No, no…" Mal took a deep breath. "Felix, I… have this feeling that Team Plasma isn't everything they say they are."

"What do you mean?"

The boy seemed tense; he refused to make eye contact and instead seemed lost in thought. "I feel like you shouldn't just blithely trust them, I suppose."

"How bad can they be? They're fighting for a great cause!"

"Just call it a hunch."

"You think they're like Team Rocket, don't you?"

Mal only took another breath.

"The name's a coincidence, I'm telling you!" Felix was starting to feel exasperated. Was everyone going to treat him like he joined Team Rocket over this?

"It's not that, it's…"

"It's what? ...What is it? You can tell me!"

"What's going on, guys?" Raphael had come up to join them. He glanced a worried look at his childhood friend. "Mal, you don't look so good. Is everything okay?"

"I joined a Pokémon rights group called Team Plasma and it's bothering him for some reason," Felix spoke up.

"Oh, you did? Nice!" Raphael flashed Felix a smile. "This won't get in the way of our little partnership, will it?"

"Oh, of course not! I only have to go help out like once a week or so, so the rest of the time we can work at your team all you want!"

"Glad to hear it, and I'm happy for you, Felix!" Raph turned back to Mal. "So yeah, Mal, what's getting you down?"

After a moment, he smiled back at Raphael and Felix. "It's nothing, guys. Sorry for the trouble, Felix; I really am happy for you."

"Oh, that's a relief!" Felix sighed and threw his arm around Mal. "But if whatever it was is still getting you down later, don't be afraid to talk about it!"

"Right, of course," Mal chuckled. "But I'll be okay. Actually, I would like to hear how the meeting went if that's okay."

Felix's eyes lit up, and he began recounting the events of the day.

Cascade looked up to his trainer, then sighed and turned to Teddi. "You and Su Lin should make yourselves comfortable. Knowing Felix, we're going to be here all night…"


	7. Chansey's Care

"'Does not like to fight,' the Pokedex said. 'Will avoid battles if possible,' it said." Cascade panted, holding his arm where Raphael's Pidgey, Stryker, had Tackled him. Four times. He stood before his trainer in the Pokémon Center's battleground, facing a smug, preening bird.

"Yeah, Raphael picked a real fighter, didn't he?" Felix replied.

"Why don't you try fighting her, huh?" the Buizel snapped. "I'd like to see you get Tackled four times in a row."

Felix shrugged. "What do you say, Stryker?"

The Pidgey shrieked in laughter. "Battle a human? That's rich! I thought you cowards always used Pokémon for your dirty work."

"So why'd you join Raph's team then?"

"Easy; a lifetime supply of berries and caretakers, all for knocking some heads? Sign me up! Besides, I can already tell Raphael's way more capable than most of the brats who come through here."

Felix smiled, then looked up to Raphael and switched to English. "Hey, Cascade and I are going to switch out. Do you mind?"

Raphael blinked. "You're going to what?"

"I'll battle Stryker!"

Raphael was silent for a moment. "You're joking me, right?"

"Well, why not? Just because I can't use aura doesn't mean I can't learn how to fight too."

"Yeah, but... this is a _Pokémon_ battle."

Felix snickered. "And I'll battle a Pokémon!"

"Come on, mate! Take this seriously!"

"I am being serious! But fine, whatever. Cascade's getting tired anyway, so can we call it here? I think I've learned a lot from what I've seen so far."

Both Raphael and Stryker groaned in disappointment. "I finally got you on the ropes, though!" Raphael complained.

Felix chuckled and looked down. "Yeah, about that, uh… I haven't exactly been trying?"

"What?!" The boy and bird exclaimed simultaneously.

"It's hard to evaluate a Pokémon's health and fight effectively at the same time, okay? This was just kind of an exercise so I could see Stryker move and fight organically. ...H-hey, what's with the glare?" Both Raph and Stryker looked ready to kill.

Raphael only sighed and walked off of the battlefield, Stryker fluttering up to his shoulder. Felix and Cascade followed suit and soon the four were at a table. The breeder reached into his bag and pulled out a small container of Oran berries.

"I ought to peck your eyes out for that," Stryker muttered before accepting the blue berry. "What kind of person wouldn't give battling their all?"

"What's she saying?" Raphael asked.

"She's upset that Cascade and I didn't try our hardest in that battle." Felix paraphrased.

"Her and me both…" Raphael sighed. "Darn it, I think I finally beat someone and nope, he wasn't even trying…"

"Sorry!" Felix replied. "I really should have told you earlier, it's my bad. But hey, didn't you beat all those other guys at the trainer house?"

"Yeah, but I want to beat someone challenging for once!"

"Wouldn't be challenging if you always won," Felix pointed out.

"Whatever. Just tell me what you learned."

"She Tackles with her beak instead of her head, for one," Felix pointed out.

"That's why it hurts so much," Stryker snickered. Cascade shot her a glare and took a scornful bite of his Oran berry.

"That's unhealthy," Felix explained to Raph. "She could damage her beak and it'll get all funky." He turned to the Pidgey. "And trust me, the surgery for that hurts way more."

"Okay, relearn how to Tackle, what else?" Raphael replied.

"Also, you were reckless."

"I was pressing my advantage!" Raph and Stryker rebutted simultaneously.

" _You were being reckless_ ," the breeder reiterated. _These two really_ are _alike,_ he thought. "I know Stryker's speed is exhilarating, but if you two push that hard in a real fight she's going to collapse before you know what's happening."

"Would not!" Stryker retorted.

"Really? Relax for me. The battle's over, after all."

The bird trilled, her body releasing all the tension that only Felix could see. A moment later, she collapsed on the table, panting with eyes half-open.

"Arceus, what happened?!" Raphael cried, jumping in his seat. He immediately leaned over the bird with a concerned look, gingerly stroking her feathers.

"This is why she's such an amazing fighter." Felix said. Cascade had clawed up an Oran berry into small pieces, and was offering them one at a time to the dazed bird. "She doesn't hold _anything_ back; she can just keep pushing and pushing all the way through at full strength, only letting go when she's won or totally drained."

"Is she going to be okay?" her trainer asked.

"Yeah, she'll be just fine! This is just all the exhaustion catching up to her."

"Get off me, Buizel," Stryker muttered, weakly batting Cascade with a wing. "I don't need your help."

"Ah, sorry," Cascade said softly. He pushed the rest of the berry chunks in front of the finch, who unsteadily pushed herself upright and began eating.

"And she's already back to her snarky ways!" Felix chuckled. "Stryker's going to be a star, I know it."

"Of course she will; all my team members are going to be the best in the region!" Raphael boasted.

"Right. Speaking of, can I get a better look at Sola and Lune? I might have gotten too into that last battle in Pallet Town…"

"You want to 'not try' again?" Raph muttered. Stryker had finished her berry and had settled down to rest, so Raphael returned her to her Pokéball.

"No, no, I just want to get to know them better," the breeder explained. "You know, learn what's holding them back mentally or physically and all that. Is that okay?"

"Oh yeah, of course!" Raphael reached for the two Pokéballs on his belt and released his Eevee in one practiced motion onto the table. They glanced around at their surroundings, eventually focusing their attention on Raphael.

"Great, thanks!" Felix said. Switching to the Eevee tongue, he said, "Okay, you two! Mind if I get to know you guys a little better?"

The twin foxes turned. Lune gave Felix a steely glare. "What's it to you?"

Sola batted her brother with a paw. "Don't be rude; he's trying to help us!"

"How much help can he be? He didn't spend the last eight years training his tail off like Raphael did," Lune quipped back.

"Yes, he has," Cascade interjected. "Maybe he didn't waste his life learning to be a violent commander like your trainer, but he's the most dedicated breeder and friend to Pokémon you'll ever meet!"

"Did you just call my trainer violent…?" Lune growled. Sola bore her own teeth.

Felix quickly dove between the growling Pokémon and Cascade as the two Eevee leapt for the Buizel. "Thaaaat's enough, Cascade!" the breeder exclaimed in Floatzel. "I appreciate you defending me, but there's no need to insult Raphael, you know?"

"Right. Sorry." Cascade murmured, avoiding eye contact. "I just… care a lot about you."

"I know you do," Felix smiled, rubbing the otter's head with his free hand. "But you need to apologize to Lune and Sola, too!" The twins were snapping at Felix, biting him for getting in the way.

"Felix, what's going on? Hey, Lune, Sola, stand down!" Raph barked. Instantly the two relaxed and stopped biting Felix's arm. He snatched up the Eevee and looked back at Felix. "Okay, seriously; what just happened? And are you okay?"

"Oh, this?" Felix examined the bite marks on his forearm. They were sort of blending in with all the scars other Pokémon had given him over the years, and he couldn't decide whether that was sad or hilarious. "This is nothing; try getting snacked on by a Deino!" Felix laughed a little and retrieved a package of antiseptic wipes from his bag. "Anyway, Lune said I wouldn't be helpful and Cascade took offence to that, so he said that you wasted your life learning how to be a violent commander and Lune and Sola took offense to _that_ , so they attacked and I had them bite my arm instead of my Buizel." He wipe up the welling blood, then looked at Cascade expectantly.

"I'm sorry, you two," Cascade grumbled. "I shouldn't have insulted Raphael; he really is an excellent trainer."

The two relaxed. "Thank you," Lune said.

"Thank you coming to my defense, but biting our friends won't solve anything," Raphael chided. "Understand, guys?"

Sola's ears fell. "Yes, Raphy." Lune said nothing, but he nodded.

"Let's try all of this again," Felix suggested. "Raphael, can Sola and I talk one on one?"

Raphael gave him a confused look. "One on one, what for?"

Felix shrugged. "Sometimes Pokémon have secrets they don't want their team members knowing about, or their trainers hearing whether they understand or not."

"Oh, come on, these two?" Raphael rubbed the heads of his twin foxes. "They know they can tell me anything! ...As best they can, anyway."

Felix gave a half-smile. "You'd be surprised. I don't think Sola and Lune have anything to hide, but just in case, you know?"

"Okay, I understand." Raphael nodded, then did a little sweeping motion with his hand. Well, off you go, Sola; I promise I won't ask about what you talk about, if that helps."

Sola obediently hopped off the table and stood at Felix's feet. The breeder smiled at the little fox, then led her to a table on the other side of the field. Sola kept at a constant clip right at his side, out of the way but definitely close. When they reached the table, she jumped up atop it and sat facing Felix, tail slowly wagging.

"Well, aren't you disciplined?" Felix chuckled.

Sola smiled. "Well, I do have an excellent trainer," she boasted.

"Well, you can go ahead and relax." Felix shifted to a more comfortable position in his chair, then fixed the Eevee with an intent look. "Before we begin, though, is there anything at all you want to tell me? You have my word I won't tell anyone—not even Cascade—and if word does get out you have full permission to claw my face off."

Sola hummed to herself, thinking. "No, I don't think so! If there was something like that, I could just tell Raphy. I do trust him a lot, honest!"

Felix smiled and nodded. "I believe you! But just in case there ever is anything, you can trust me, I promise." Sola nodded in turn.

"Okay, onto the questions," Felix began. He also got up close to her, carefully feeling her pelt and closely examining every part of her body. "Any persistent aches and pains since your battle on... " Felix cleared his throat and intentionally kept his voice calm. "On Route One?"

"Chansey already asked me all this and did all this, Felix!" Sola complained, pawing the breeder away. "My ears and eyes feel fine, I'm not coughing or sneezing or cramping, and my stool looks just as icky as normal!"

"That's everything!" Felix chuckled as he sat upright. "Sorry, checking up on a commissioner's Pokémon is a force of habit, I guess."

"Was that all you needed?" the Eevee asked.

"No, not everything. I want to know how you're feeling, too. Are you nervous at all? Depressed, angry, anything like that?"

Sola's hesitated, then after a moment her ears fell. "I guess there is something I don't want Raphy to know…"

Felix rubbed those long ears and smiled warmly. "Don't worry. This'll be our little secret. Remember, I promised!"

She took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm just so worried!" she exclaimed. "I lost to you and Lune to that psychic girl, and we both lost to that lady in the forest, all in a row. We never lose! You should have seen us at the Ashford school, we were the best team hands down."

"Losing never feels good, I understand," Felix said softly, gently stroking her fur. "So I'm guessing you're worried about facing Brock, is that it?"

"Yeah…" Sola sighed. "I need to win first time for Raphy, but I don't think I can do it!"

Felix inwardly cringed. Now he wanted to tell off Raphael for pushing Sola and Lune so hard, but a secret was a secret. Instead he said in a soothing voice, "You know Raphael is twice as worried as you are, right?"

"He is?" Sola asked, wide-eyed.

"He won't even admit it to himself, but he really is scared. Just like you, he's not used to losing and he doesn't even want to think about what would happen if Brock beat him too."

"Aww… poor Raphy!" Sola looked dejected.

"So…" Felix bit his tongue and he reconsidered his options. He couldn't imply that Raphael was going to lose, since Sola couldn't accept the idea of failing Raphael again. Nor could he get her hopes up, since he knew it was hopeless to win first time… "So you need to be able to keep his spirits high, Sola. The more confident you can be for him, the better he'll feel about himself, too."

"Be confident for him? That sounds kinda hard…" Sola whimpered.

"Even if you have to pretend, he'll feel a lot better."

Her eyes widened. "Really? I can just pretend?"

"Uh-huh!" Felix smiled and nodded. "Most people can't tell the difference, believe me. You might even convince yourself!"

"Okay…" Sola then sat up straight with a resolved look. "I can do this!"

"That's the spirit!" Felix rubbed the fox's head. "Anything else?"

"Nope! I'm ready to train extra hard, for Raphy!" There was a fiery determination in the Eevee's eyes.

"Okay, one last thing…" Felix began.

"Yeah-huh?" Sola tilted her head endearingly.

"Do you think you could tell me what you hope to evolve into?" _Come on, Leafeon; come on, Leafeon!_

"Oh? Oh… hmm… I'm thinking, Espeon or Sylveon?"

 _Aww…_ "Oh, those are both good ones!" Felix nodded, doing his best to hide his disappointment. "Any reason in particular?"

"Well they're both really pretty, and Espeon is really really strong, but Sylveon are super nice to their friends! I don't think I can decide…"

Felix patted her head. "You'll know when the time is right… I've never met an Eeveelution that was unhappy with their choice!"

Sola's eyes grew wide. "Really?"

"Cross my heart!" Felix replied, petting her a little more. "Thanks for telling me, by the way! Go ahead and run on back, and send Lune here! Okay?"

Sola nodded and dashed off across the field. Felix watched as she jumped up into Raphael's arms, tail wagging, before Lune made his way towards Felix. The Eevee was scowling as he jumped up on the table.

"What's the matter, Lune?" Felix asked.

"I'm only doing this because Raphael wants me to. Can we get it over with?" he snapped.

"Come on, buddy, I'm trying to help you!" Felix exclaimed. "I'll just go quick, how's that?"

"Whatever it takes…" Lune muttered.

"Okay, then real quick, did Nurse Joy and her Chansey ask you about your health? Aches, pains, coughs, all that?"

"Yeah."

"Alright… how are you doing mentally and emotionally? Are you nervous about anything? Any secrets you need to confide?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Because if there is anything—"

"I'm fine, Felix!" Lune snapped again. "Are we done now?"

"What's the matter, Lune? Are you sure there's no problem? Are you frustrated that you've done poorly against Sonia and I?"

"No…" There was a quaver in the Eevee's voice.

"Are you sure? You don't sound like it."

"I'm sure!" Lune exclaimed, jumping off the table. "I'm totally fine. Now leave us alone." He scampered off back to Raphael.

Felix groaned and stood up. Well, it wasn't the first time a young Pokémon had been rude. Hopefully he'd mellow out when he evolves… and hopefully into a Glaceon! A short walk later the breeder was at his client's table, the twin Eevee fawning over him like nothing had happened. Cascade was resting in the sun against a chair and Stryker looked alert on top of that chair.

"How'd it go?" Raphael asked.

"I'd rather not say, remember?" Felix replied, holding up a finger. Even though nothing happened with Lune, it was important to Felix to keep that secret anyway.

"Oh, right, sorry." The trainer scratched Lune's chin. "You finished pretty quickly with him, though."

"That's how long he needed," Felix shrugged.

"We didn't do anything, Raphy," Lune complained. "He just asked useless questions!"

"Lune!" Sola pawed her brother's ear. "Were you rude again?"

Lune pawed back. "We don't need him, Sola!"

A stern look from Raphael made Sola huff instead of retaliate. "Well, yeah, but you still can't be rude…"

Felix could hear Cascade grumble, but thankfully he stayed where he was.

"So we're heading out tomorrow," Felix spoke up.

"Yeah, we are," Raphael replied. "How was Viridian?"

"Oh, it was great," the breeder gushed. "No Pokémon that I wanted to catch—well, there were six but I _just couldn't_ and that makes me sad but I also got to join Team Plasma and—"

"Woah, buddy, slow down!" Raphael was laughing. "I'm glad you had a good time, though! To be honest, winning so handily in the Trainer House really boosted my confidence and I got the amazing Stryker to join my team, so I'd say my trip here went pretty well, too!" Atop her chair, the Pidgey preened herself; Raphael patted her head proudly.


	8. Riolu's Aspiration

Felix groaned and stretched as he woke up, nearly kicking off the Buizel asleep on the foot of his bed. Instead Cascade yelped and scrambled back on; his antics made his trainer snap awake.

"Woah, what time is it?" Felix stretched again in bed, and this time Cascade gave up and hopped to the messy floor. The breeder checked his Pokétch, still blinking awake: 9:45 a.m.

He jolted and rolled out of bed, quickly tearing off his pajamas and throwing on his last clean outfit. In his panic he found himself tossing together all his possessions and haphazardly shoving them into his backpack.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!" He repeated to himself. "Overslept bad!"

"Slow down, slow down!" Cascade said even as he helped his trainer to gather up his belongings. "If you don't put it all away right you're not going to fit it all in and waste even more time!"

"No time, can't worry about that, we were supposed to be gone 15 minutes ago!" Felix replied. The _one day_ he forgets to set an alarm… of course it would be the day it mattered. Boots went in the bottom of his backpack, followed by three worn outfits and his pajamas, and then he began cramming his Potions, Berry case, and other supplies into the top and the pockets. Cascade's Pokéball fit neatly in a designated pocket, and Felix idly mused at how rarely it was used.

He understood that it can be hard for trainers to keep up with six or more potentially colossal Pokémon at once and all the daily grooming and care that out-of-Pokéball Pokémon required… but wasn't that the point of having Pokémon? Everybody says they're companions first, so shouldn't they enjoy that day-to-day care as much as Felix? Something to ask the others, maybe.

He finished packing by giving Cascade and then himself a quick grooming. His backpack was bulging, filled to the brim and unable to zip up completely. It would have to do for now; he could finish organizing when they broke for lunch on the trail.

He bolted downstairs to the foyer of the Pokémon Center with Cascade in tow, breathing heavily from his speed-packing and sprinting. Sonia and Mal were at a table by the door, the girl looking bored and impassive as always while Mal seemed quietly content to be sitting. Raphael was nowhere in sight.

Felix swung his backpack up onto the table, making its main pouch split open and spill its excess contents. The breeder groaned, his heart sinking.

Cascade huffed a short laugh. "I told you not to stuff everything in like that!"

"Okay, Dad, I get it," Felix grumbled back.

"Here, let me help." Mal was already gathering the clothing that had fallen to the floor. "It will all fit much more cleanly if you fold it."

Felix smiled and laughed light-heartedly, but inwardly guilt seized his heart. He was a bit scatter-brained, yeah, but it didn't feel good to hold up his friends because of it. "I was going to fold it on the trail; didn't want to keep you all waiting!"

"Mm." Mal nodded and cleanly folded a T-shirt into a perfect, flat rectangle. "Let's just do it now. It shouldn't take too long if we work together."

"This may be a bad time to mention, but you forgot all our hygienics in the bathroom," Cascade mentioned.

Felix facepalmed, but thanked Mal again. Still, all his forgetfulness made him feel even worse about himself. Sonia suddenly stood up and left without a word, which didn't help matters.

A couple minutes later they had a pile of neatly folded—if dirty—outfits. Felix vowed to wash it as soon as they got to Pewter, and that none of this would happen again.

Just in time for Zorua to burst out of the pile of clothes, cackling her vulpine laugh and sprinting off the table while Felix cried out to see several more minutes slip right through his fingers. Mal laughed at her antics and got back to folding while Felix got up and ran after the crafty little fox.

Zorua was a nimble little Pokémon, and so Felix and Cascade found themselves just chasing her through the lobby without success. She even circled the two, taunting them. _Can't catch a Zorua when she's right under your nose, zoru!_ Cascade lunged and she slipped between his legs. _What a shame, zoru, what a shame…_

She jumped up on a table, "accidentally" knocking over a stack of books with a loud crash. _Go back to the ranch, breeder boy! Zoru!_ She baited breeder and Buizel closer, then jumped over their heads. Felix leapt for her, but Zorua angled herself right and Felix crashed to the floor face-first.

"Ooh," said Nurse Joy from behind the counter. "Zorua one; breeder zero."

Despite having his tails royally handed to him by a fox a third his size, Felix found himself cheering up. It's really not hard to have fun with Pokémon like Zorua if you can lighten up to their mischief, and Felix was sure Zorua was having the time of her life tripping up a human like him.

Felix got to his feet, playfully flashing Zorua an angry look while she pranced around underneath their table, looking quite pleased with herself. Sonia came up, put her hands on her hips, and glared at her Pokémon with a look somehow powerful and dispassionate at the same time. "Zorua, that really wasn't nice."

Zorua pouted, and Felix inferred she said something telepathically, because Sonia continued, "Zorua, it was annoying, it was a waste of time, and it was a waste of effort. If little miss selfish can't think of Felix, what about you spending an extra night outdoors?"

Zorua's ears fell, and the poor fox looked really dejected. Whether she was playing another trick or not to get out of punishment, Felix cringed as he realized he was playing along a little _too_ well. He rubbed the back of his head and said, "Oh, don't make her feel too bad. It's okay, really!

Sonia crossed her arms. Dryly she replied, "She made you hit your head on the floor, she wasted our time, and she wasted your hard work."

Zorua couldn't take the fall for this. "Hitting my face was my fault!" he protested. "I was trying to tickle her; I shouldn't have, it was my fault—"

The door opened. Cascade turned, sniffing the air curiously, which cut Felix off. Felix himself turned to see the newcomer: a man wearing a blue jacket and hat. His spiky black hair framed a solemn face, which looked so much like Sonia and yet… somehow entirely different. Beside him was a Lucario carrying a Riolu Egg inside an Egg Capsule. Felix absently stood to get a better look. No wonder Cascade was sniffing—he was all too familiar with the smells of Eggs and breeding equipment.

"Hello there," he said, looking over the group. His voice was friendly and calm, like Mal's. "My name is Riley. This is Lucas." He gestured to his Lucario, who barked a short greeting. "You four are traveling trainers, no?"

"Yeah!" Raphael stood up from where he was sorting out his own stuff with Mal. He must have come down while Felix was playing with Zorua. "We are! Just started out. My name's Raphael!"

Sonia offered what was technically a smile. "Sonia." Felix caught Lucas and even Riley narrowing their eyes at her simultaneously. Lucas might have sensed her powerful aura, but… Riley?

Mal gave the man a short bow. "I am Mal."

Felix waved pleasantly, burying his questions. "I'm Felix. Nice to meet you!"

"Very nice to meet you too." he replied. He walked towards the group, Lucas a step behind. "If it's quite alright, I had a favor to ask."

Lucas glanced down at his Egg for a fraction of a second, and Felix and Mal exchanged looks a moment later. The Lucario's body language gave the breeder a suspicion of what Riley would ask, and he looked to Mal for confirmation one way or another. Instead his friend gave him that same confused look, so Felix was left to quietly consider what he saw.

It was Mal who spoke up. "What favor?"

And then Lucas held out the Egg. He was rather quiet, which was to be expected when humans were conducting business, but his expression was hopeful, tinged with just a little anxiety.

Riley gestured to the Egg. "This Pokémon Egg came into my possession, but I am unable to properly care for it. You four seem like good people, so I would like to ask you to take care of it in my stead."

Felix's eyes widened. He thought the man would have a difficult question or an unhealthy Egg, nothing more! "You're asking us to take care of a Riolu Egg, just like that? B-but you don't even know us!"

Riley nodded, seemingly unfazed. "I may not know you personally, but I've seen you before. You and… Mal, was it? You two cared for the Zorua when she was injured, and I've seen your bandana. You are a qualified Sinnoan breeder." He smiled. "I'm from Sinnoh myself. It's quite reassuring, to be honest."

"Oh!" Felix felt his cheeks warm up from the praise. "I… uh… thanks!" He looked around, praying to every legendary he could think of that his friends wouldn't object to accepting the Egg. "So? Wh-what do you think? I think it's an amazing opportunity for all of us!" He inwardly cringed at how cheesy his reasoning was.

Raphael clenched his fist in a show of confidence. "I think it'd be awesome, that's what! I can't wait for you guys to teach me how to take care of an Egg!"

 _Can't wait for me to_ teach _him, huh?_ Felix smiled politely, even though he worried for the poor Egg. _Well... at least he's enthusiastic!_

"It's great that you're trusting us with this, Riley!" Raph concluded.

Mal nodded. "I don't object; this seems like a beneficial arrangement for everyone."

All eyes were on Sonia now. "Three against one, Sonia," Raphael warned, which made Felix raise an eyebrow. Sonia hadn't said anything, had she?

Sonia stiffened in response. "I don't care," she said brusquely. Then she looked to Riley. "Are you a Fighting-type?"

Felix whipped his head around to look at Riley, intensely curious. Typed humans were pretty rare, and Fighting-types were most powerful after Psychics and the Ghost-typed Mediums. Riley didn't even bat an eyelash when he replied, "I am indeed."

That made Riley an extremely capable fighter, potentially on par or surpassing Pokémon like his own Lucario.

It seemed no one had anything to add to that thought, however, so Mal brought up again, "Do you have an opinion, Sonia?"

Sonia shrugged, at the very least not looking irritated. "I told you; I don't care. I don't mind the egg being around, but I'm not exactly the most attentive caregiver. I'll catch it if it falls, nothing else."

Mal smiled at Riley. "That's all in favor."

Riley's soft smile widened. "Thank you very much, you four." Lucas offered the Egg to Felix,and the breeder accepted it with all the reverence it was due. In an Egg, a Pokémon was aware of its surroundings in a way that even Psychics like Sonia never could be. The Riolu was a fully formed juvenile, having skipped its infant stage due to having been bred. They were waiting for the perfect moment to "hatch", Felix knew, which would happen almost always because they recognized their ideal trainer in the one holding them. But if that Egg was broken early… well, some Pokémon never got over the trauma.

Felix didn't know if the Riolu would want him, but he swore to be the best trainer he could be if that were true.

Riley stepped toward the door, Lucas glancing back at Felix as if to ensure he was holding the Egg properly. "I hope to see you again in good circumstances," said the trainer. "Enjoy your journey!" He tipped his hat to them and gave each of them a warm look. Then he strided out with his Lucario into the bright daylight.

Felix kept a close watch on Zorua as he folded up his clothes for the second time with Mal and their Pokémon chipping in. In no time at all everything was in its proper place in Felix's bag, so it zipped up with plenty of room to spare. Then they all helped to finish Raphael's packing, and at last everyone was ready to go.

Felix didn't trust anyone other than himself and Cascade with the Egg, nor did he want it unceremoniously shoved in his backpack like just another item, so he clutched the Egg Capsule close to his chest, carefully watching his surroundings for even the suggestion of danger to his precious cargo.

The walk through the streets and to the city outskirts was thankfully uneventful, right up until a teenage girl came jogging up to them at the entrance to Viridian Forest. "Hey!" she called out. "Raphael! Are you guys heading to Pewter as well?"

Recognition flashed across the trainer's face, and he turned and grinned at the newcomer. "Yeah, we are! Guys, this is—"

"Emily O'Brian!" The girl skidded to a stop to fall into step with them, and Felix could see her more clearly. Blonde hair, tanned skin, and deep blue eyes. She had toned muscles which her outfit showed off despite the encroaching chill. She held herself confidently much like Raphael did. Were they good friends or something? "Raph, you never told me you were travelling with a group!" Even her inflection matched Raph's.

Felix muttered to Cascade in Floatzel. "Do you ship them?" As was Felix's habit of shipping Pokémon, Cascade enjoyed shipping the humans who bred them.

"Mm, not sure yet," Cascade whispered back. "They are a lot alike, but there's still a lot that could keep them apart."

"Too true, buddy." Felix rubbed the Buizel's inflatable collar.

Sola and Lune both said hello, which brought Felix back to the main conversation

just in time for him to see her extend a hand. He shook her hand, which was warm despite the weather, and said, "I'm Felix Verity, a Pokémon breeder. It's a pleasure to meet you, Emily!"

"A pleasure to meet you as well," she replied. To Felix's delight, she even shook Cascade's paw. She radiated friendliness and charisma, embodying the traits perhaps even better than Raphael. Beside him, Cascade was smiling and nodding to himself, glancing between Emily and Raph.

Then she offered a hand to Sonia, who looked ticked off for some reason. "Psychic," she said bluntly.

Emily immediately faltered, her expression shifting to concern. She gave a strained smile. "You're psychic?"

Sonia turned away from her and muttered, "And the problem is?"

Emily crossed her arms and frowned. "Definitely psychic."

Sonia retaliated in a sudden display of anger. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

But Emily was ignoring her now, turning to Raphael instead. "Why are you traveling with someone like her?" The implied insult even stung Felix.

Sonia growled, "Excuse me?!"

Even Raphael ignored her, instead telling Emily, "No choice." Felix's heart sunk a little further.

Emily gave Raphael another sympathetic look. "That's really dangerous. How can anyone force you to do this?"

Dangerous?

"I mean, that's an infringement of your rights," Emily said. "They're putting you in danger for what— publicity? Looking good?"

Raphael nodded, and Felix felt uneasy. Why was he agreeing so readily to this? "Pretty much," he replied. "I wish I had you there when I was arguing with the League about it the first time!"

Emily shook her head. "If I can do anything to help, let me know. Innocent people shouldn't be put in danger like this."

Sonia was tense. Felix could only guess how she was feeling about all this… if she was feeling anything at all. "I'm right here, you know," she said, deadpan.

"Come on," Raphael said, looking as relaxed as Sonia looked tense. "I'd hate for you to feel like you have to travel alone because of her. Let's go a bit in front, yeah?"

Emily smiled. "Thanks."

Zorua barked indignantly. Sonia frowned, saying, "I need to do something."

And then Mal grabbed her arm. Felix flinched, remembering the dangers of making contact with a Psychic, but nothing seemed to happen. "Leave him," Mal said, tersely.

Sonia turned to glare at him. "You're just going to let her make him anti-Psychic?"

Mal shook his head. "He already is."

The two continued arguing. Felix rubbed Cascade's head as they walked into the forest, more for his own benefit than the Buizel's. He knew Psychics were powerful, but… dangerous? So dangerous that Emily worried for Raphael's safety? They were all companions; Sonia even saved everyone from being kidnapped using her powers! Given her spotless record, it didn't seem fair that Raphael and Emily just immediately pinned her as being dangerous.

But… she could have been dangerous. She could rifle through Felix's memories and know him better than his parents did. Maybe she already has; how would he know? Not like he had anything to be ashamed of, though, even if Waterfall was best not spoken of. Still, Felix saw her break a gun in two like it was made of flimsy plastic from a distance, level a quarter-mile of forest in a heartbeat, and mentally torture somebody with a touch. It… was all directed at the thugs who wanted to kidnap him, but…

"Sonia…" he said in a low voice. "Is she… right?"

She turned away. "She's right that we're dangerous, yes." Not a hint of hesitation in her voice.

He winced. "Cascade, what do you think of all this?" he said.

"Hm? Think of what?" the otter replied.

"About Sonia… about her being dangerous." Felix replied. Even if she couldn't understand his speech, he felt bad saying it. And then maybe she was listening in on his thoughts anyway…

"She doesn't seem dangerous to me," Cascade dismissed with a shrug. "Has she done anything to hurt or threaten us?"

"Well, no, but… technically she could, couldn't she?"

"And every storm _could_ strike you with a lightning bolt. No reason to hate the rain, right?"

"But you don't go out when it's storming."

"And you don't go out and piss off a psychic. Simple as that."

Felix thought on his Pokémon's words. "Then I guess I'm just afraid that I will do something to upset her without knowing."

"Just be aware of her and hope for the best, I guess. Not much more you can do, right?"

His unease diminished but not gone, Felix smiled and rubbed that rubbery collar again. "Wise as always, buddy."

Cascade smiled and preened.

An uncomfortable silence followed. Raphael and Emily were ahead, enjoying whatever conversation they were engaged in. Sonia was a little ways off from the rest of the group, very clearly wanting to be left alone. And so Felix cleared his throat, rubbing the glass of the Egg Capsule, and mumbled to Mal, "So, um. How are your bears?"

"Huh?" Mal looked to Felix.

"Your bear Pokémon, Teddi and Su Lin. Are they doing well?"

"Yeah, they're both doing great." Mal patted their heads, and they smiled up at Felix.

"That's good," Felix replied, still rather uncomfortable. Despite his best efforts, he glanced back at Sonia every few moments.

"Yeah." Another awkward silence. "Is Cascade well, too?"

"Definitely. A bit tired from all the walking we've done this week, but isn't everyone?"

Mal chuckled. "That's true, definitely."

Sonia turned on a dime, eyes wide as she looked at the others. "Something's coming!"

Felix tensed, a loud buzzing sound growing louder and louder. His own eyes widened as he recognized the sound. "Is that—"

A swarm of Beedrill swept overhead, attacking and stinging everything indiscriminately. The buzzing roared in Felix's ears, almost louder than a motorcycle engine. The Pokémon were enraged beyond words; all he could interpret was the shouting of a thousand insect berserkers.

"Beedrill!" Raphael shouted. "A lot of Beedrill! Run!"

Felix bolted along the rest as the Beedrill suddenly took interest in their group. There were a few words exchanged among the swarm. It was hard to make out over the buzzing, but they said something about the source of something and the elimination of that source.

And based on their actions, it seemed they pinned Felix and his friends as their "source".

"Sonia! Do something!" Felix shouted over the din.

They were being forced along different routes by the underbrush, Raphael and Felix veering left and Mal, Emily and Sonia on a right path. He could only barely make out Sonia's reply. "They're Bug-types; it won't have nearly as much effect as you're thinking!"

Mal said something as well, but they were too far away now.

Cascade and Felix sprinted forward alongside Raphael as the others fell out of sight entirely. Anxiety flooded his being to see their group cut in half.

The Beedrill kept advancing on them, kept shouting about eliminating the "source". Felix couldn't exactly explain to a swarm that angry that they meant no harm… but actions spoke louder than words.

As carefully as he could, Felix offered the Egg Case to Cascade while running; Cascade accepted it without protest. The breeder then swung his backpack around and practically tore it open in his haste to reach his berry case. With both his hands occupied, Felix had to use his teeth to grab and rip open his plastic bag of Oran berries, which he let spill behind him.

"Berries!" One Beedrill cried, and the word was then repeated by the swarm as a whole.

"The source would not offer berries."

"The source does not seem to be in this direction anyway."

"These berries are large and fresh and sweet. This attack has been a mistake."

The buzzing grew quieter as the Beedrill swarm halted their assault, and Raphael and Felix slowed as it fell into silence. The trainers wheezed from the exertion, collapsing at the base of a tree as they caught their breath. Cascade was standing, paws clutching the Egg Capsule with all the care Felix had. But the breeder could see the exhaustion in his stance and so beckoned the otter to sit.

"I… saw that…!" Raphael gasped. He let out what seemed to be a laugh. "You tore open... a bag of berries with your teeth to distract them." Another deep breath. "That was freaking amazing!"

Felix grinned and took to putting his berry case away. "Thanks! I knew we weren't in their territory since they were shouting about sources, not intruders."

"Sources? Of what?"

"Beats me, but they sure wanted them gone. I think they assumed in their rage that we were the source of whatever was aggravating them, so I convinced them we were a source of berries instead."

"Genius," Raphael was shaking his head. "Absolutely genius."

"We've got other problems, though," Felix continued. "Did you see where the others went?"

"Yeah, we split up from Mal and Emily about a mile that way." Raphael pointed in a seemingly arbitrary direction.

Felix frowned. "How are you so sure? That's not even the direction we came from."

"We made a few turns on our way here. If you can believe it, we're actually going sideways right now. Pewter is that way." Again, another arbitrary direction.

Felix hummed, weighing his intuition against his trust. "You're absolutely sure you know where you're going?"

"Yes, Felix! Here, look." He rummaged around in his own bag and retrieved a compass. "Canopy's too thick to see the sun, but look." Sure enough, Felix was pointing west when Pewter was north of Viridian. Raphael was in turn gesturing south-east and north. "Trust me now?"

"I… I guess it's the best we got!" Felix replied, still a little unsure that Raphael was _that_ precise.

"Come on, then." Raphael stood up and started jogging deeper into the forest. Felix got to his feet, his legs still screaming from his mile of sprinting, but he did his best to keep up with his friend.

Raph seemed totally confident with every step through the forest, ignoring trails and pushing through underbrush to cut a direct path to his destination. Thankfully he slowed down when he noticed Felix lagging behind so the two boys and their Pokémon walked side by side.

"Felix is there." Sonia said.

The group pushed past a little more foliage to see Mal, his bears, Sonia, and Zorua on the edge of a deep ditch. Their clothes and fur were dusty and dirty. Raphael was beaming. "See? I told you this was where we lost them!"

Felix grinned, embarrassed. "I don't know how you kept track of that, but you did." He turned and smiled at Sonia and Mal. "What a relief to see you guys!"

Raphael was looking around, crestfallen. "So Emily didn't fall down here with you guys?"

Mal shook his head. "She was to our right, where there were less bushes. She would have seen the ditch and been able to avoid it, or even jump over, depending on how athletic she was."

Felix nodded, then frowned, rubbing his chin. "I don't suppose you two found out whatever was making the Beedrill so angry? They were raging about something they called a 'source' when they went after us. No talk of trespassers, vandals, et cetera, so it's safe to say we didn't disturb their territory."

Raphael folded his arms. "Could a powerful Psychic be the source?"

Sonia glared at him. "Oh, no you don't. You are not going to try blaming every little setback on me."

Felix laughed awkwardly. "They can sense Psychics when extremely close by due to auric response, but to my knowledge there've never been any reports of them seeking out Psychics or Psychic-types to attack them specifically _because_ they were Psychic."

Raphael shrugged. "It was a theory."

Felix laughed again, trying to defuse the tension before it blew up into an argument they _really_ didn't need right now. "Never mind! How about we keep walking? I, for one, want to get to Pewter and I don't want us to just wait around to get attacked by Beedrill."

After some backtracking and another argument between Raphael and Sonia (about where the path to Pewter was, which Raphael won), they were back on track for Pewter City. Felix groomed himself, Cascade, and the Eevee to get all the leafs and twigs out of their clothes and fur while Mal and Sonia brushed dirt off.

Raphael plucked a twig from the back of his hair and grinned at Mal. "Felix was awesome! We're running, and he just pulls this pack of Oran Berries from his bag, cuts it open with his teeth and throws it back at them over his shoulder! A few seconds later, no more Beedrill!"

Mal clapped Felix on the shoulder, smiling. Sonia nodded in his direction, giving him her own version of a smile.

And no more Beedrill came to attack. It seemed like they were home free! Still, Felix mourned the loss of the berries-he handpicked each one at the market, only buying the healthiest and freshest of the lot. Oran berries were prized for their auric health benefits in Pokémon, so it wasn't a cheap loss either. Poor Cascade was still clutching the Egg nervously, his little ears perked for the slightest indication that another swarm would be upon them. Felix rubbed his collar and pulled a leaf from his tail fur, which seemed to help him a little.

"I can't hear them," Sonia whispered. Her voice was strained and full of fear. Felix and the others whirled around to look at her; everyone's eyes wide with worry. Sonia began to hyperventilate. "They're gone! They're gone!" she cried, falling to her knees.

Then she started screaming.

"Now!" shouted a painfully familiar voice.

Felix yelped as people and Pokémon fell from the trees. A Koffing breathed its noxious fumes in Cascade's face, making the otter choke and fall. An Elekid jabbed both of Raphael's Eevee, shocking and paralyzing them. Two Zubat grabbed Teddi and Su Lin and pulled them up in the air by their legs, and Zorua was kicked aside into a bush.

Felix was slammed by something invisible and pinned to a tree beside Raphael and Mal. Far across the trail Sonia was gasping on the ground as a group of all-too-familiar mercenaries approached. Fred and Grant held her up by her arms while Janette watched Felix and his friends from a short distance away, arms folded. Between them all their Pokémon struggled to stand, let alone fight back.

"All too easy," the dissonantly cheerful Odette called. Felix was thoroughly unnerved by the way the grown woman spoke like a little girl. She had suddenly appeared before Sonia. "Sonia, dear, you could at least put up a fight."

Sonia kicked at her helplessly; Odette was too far away. Sonia struggled, glaring up at the men holding her captive, but to no avail. Janette turned away from the boys to walk up to Sonia. There was a note of pride in her poise and voice. "Easy indeed." Fred and Grant pushed Sonia forward as Janette pressed some kind of gas mask to Sonia's face.

The psychic girl collapsed on the ground.

Odette turned to flash the boys a saccharine smile while Grant threw Sonia over his shoulder. "Sorry boys; you're just not as interesting as Sonia, so we'll be calling off our little game with you. But! We're going to take extra good care of Sonia, don't you boys worry! I'll open up her mind, learn all her little secrets, then put her back together just right so she loves Team Rocket forever!"

Felix squeaked, which made Odette giggle.

"We need to be going, Odette," Janette said.

"But I'm having fun!" Odette whined.

"We need to go," the leader repeated sternly.

"Aww, okay…" The Psychic skipped back to the rest of the group, and then they were gone.

The next moment the boys all collapsed to the ground, the psychic bindings gone. Mal coughed and wheezed, but got to his feet without too much trouble. All of them rushed over to their respective Pokémon, who had only just began to stand. Felix scooped up Cascade and checked his pulse and breathing. Mild heart palpitations, quivering muscles… Koffing neurotoxin. Nothing life-threatening, especially not at this dosage, but it definitely wasn't pleasant.

Felix retrieved a Pecha Berry from his Berry case and offered it to the Buizel, who accepted it with only a little trouble. Beside him Raphael was feeding a Cheri Berry to Sola and Lune while Mal sprayed a Potion on Teddi and Su Lin. Zorua finally struggled out of the bush, prompting Mal to check up on her next.

And then the adrenaline wore off, forcing everything back into horrible perspective. Tears leaked from Felix's eyes as he collapsed on his hands and knees. "D… dammit! They got Sonia! Th-they kidnapped her, and we didn't stop them!"

Cascade nuzzled his trainer's cheek, but it did little for the breeder. His chest heaved as he sobbed, equal parts grief and shame. He was vaguely aware of Raphael approaching to console him with a hand on his shoulder. Raphael stayed quiet, opting to simply be there for him.

Still, it felt like an eternity before Felix could stand again.


	9. Gothitelle's Contemplation

"Urrghh!" Zorua growled, batting Mal's ear from atop his shoulder. "Could you be any slower, Zoru?! I'd rather ride a Metapod than deal with this not-speed, Zorua!"

Mal took the attack on his ear bravely, pressing forward through Viridian Forest at the head of the group of himself, Felix, and Raphael. Slung over his shoulder was Sonia's backpack, which had been left behind by Team Rocket. Kai's Pokéball was inside, Felix knew, but by unspoken agreement they decided to break the news about his trainer in a better place. Zorua continued to loudly complain, but her tail wagging and distressed expression tipped Felix off to just how frightened the little fox was.

She was in good company, at least. Felix's heart pounded, and he kept Cascade close to him for support. Sonia had been kidnapped, and he and the other boys had been powerless to stop Team Rocket. And now they were miles away from Pewter without any teleportation or flying Pokémon to hasten their arrival and they had no idea where Sonia was and even if they did…!

Even if they did, Sonia was in the hands of _Team Rocket_ , a criminal organization that has no qualms about beating Felix and his friends into a fine pulp if they came to Sonia's rescue. And what if the police couldn't find her or save her? And most depressing, what could three novice trainers honestly do? Nothing, that's what.

"You're failing as her love interest, Zoru!" Zorua shouted directly into Mal's ear. The poor guy didn't even flinch, however. "Don't you know what happens in these stories, Zoru? The knight in shining armor rescues his true love and they live happily ever after with their Zorua and bears! But you're just mucking about in the woods as if you're just some peasant who doesn't matter, Zorua!"

"Felix, you understand her by now, right?" Mal asked. His voice was as calm and collected as ever, which made Felix feel a little better. "Can you tell me what she's so anxious about?"

"Er, she says you're slow and stupid and, um…" Felix paused as Zorua's most recent outcry finally registered in his mind.

"Go on," Mal requested.

"She says you're… failing as Sonia's love interest. You're Sonia's knight in shining armor but you're just mucking about in the woods. Her words, not mine!" Nevertheless, Felix felt embarrassed to have even repeated such a thing. Raphael seemed horrified at the idea of Mal and Sonia as a couple.

"Ah. Hm." Mal replied. He fell silent for a moment, and his pace just subtly picked up. "Let Zorua know that I will do what I can to help her, but given her situation running won't do much more than exhaust us when we need to be alert and prepared for anything."

"I heard you loud and clear, you lazy boyfriend!" Zorua cried. "But are you braindead, Zoru?! Why do you need Felix to translate for you, huh, Zoru? Haven't we talked before, Zorua?"

"You using telepathy time past," Felix said in the fox's tongue. Still didn't have the grammar down…

The following blasphemes against Arceus were probably heard by the legendary itself.

"What's she saying now?" Raphael asked, an Eevee by each leg. While Felix was nervous and scared and Mal was stoic as ever, there was a confidence in Raph's stance. He and his Pokémon were alert, vigilant, holding themselves as if they could spring into battle at a moment's notice.

"Uhh… she's just swearing now. It's rather creative, actually. I wonder if she's practiced." Felix tilted his head at a particularly colorful insult.

Raphael snorted. "I guess we all cope differently."

Felix sighed. "Yeah." He looked down at Cascade as he cradled the Egg Capsule; at least they hadn't thought to take the Egg, too. Maybe they were too focused on Sonia? Whatever the case was, he was glad the little Riolu was safe. Still… "What do we even do now?"

"Keep going," Raphael said.

"More or less, yeah," Mal agreed.

"But… Sonia's not here anymore."

"Still have to move forward. We're closer to Pewter than Viridian anyway." Raphael spoke without a hint of sadness.

That bothered Felix. "I know you two don't get along, but don't you care that she just got stolen? By Team Rocket? _Right in front of us?_ "

Raphael frowned at Felix, if only for a moment. "Of course I'm upset! Nobody deserves a fate like that, psychic or not. But like Mal said to Zorua, we have to keep moving. There's literally nothing we can do in this forest; once we're in Pewter, we can contact the police, the media, get the word out there that someone's been kidnapped by Team Rocket. Hopefully somebody will find her, or we will. But keep your priorities straight; don't waste energy worrying about something you can't do anything about right now."

Felix only nodded, chastised. It was hard to keep his heart from pounding, so he focused on being alive. Step forward, deep breath in. He smelled the forest air, thick with life, and exhaled. More steps, another breath. His shoes thudded against the packed dirt, sending vibrations through his body that reminded him of the steady earth beneath. Pidgey and Fearow chirped, feet landed on dirt, clothes shifted and leaves rustled. Another breath. His chest expanded, twin tails swaying, and when he exhaled he directed the air to his flotation vest—

He snorted against closed airways and coughed, shaking him out of his walking meditation. Felix shook his head. He hadn't thought anything like that in weeks. He wondered if all the excitement and terror stirred her from her slumber, or if it was the meditation clearing out enough room in his head for her thoughts to leak in.

"Are you okay, Felix?" Mal had slowed to walk in step with Felix.

"Yeah," he replied. "Just a little cough, maybe something got in my throat." Maybe. But not really. No point in telling them what actually happened, though.

"But you are okay now?"

"Yeah, totally fine." He genuinely smiled at Mal.

She lingered around the edge of his conscious, which was calming. He made sure to scratch Cascade often at that, make sure the little guy was doing okay himself. Anxiety quelled, it felt like no time at all before they came to a sign welcoming them to Pewter City.

The town was nestled at the base of the rocky Mt. Moon. Even at a distance Felix could tell it was larger than the humble Viridian City; his heart sank. How could they find Sonia in a city that big? That is, if she was even in Pewter. There was no way to tell…

As they approached the city's outskirts, Mal opened the GPS function on his Pokedex and directed them towards the heart of the city. The town was maintained well, if a bit old, with many buildings, monuments and benches all built out of the silvery-grey stone from Mt. Moon. With his hometown in Floaroma and his only experience of Kanto being hilly Pallet Town and forested Viridian, Pewter felt as stark as Veilstone City.

After another half-hour of walking, the sun hanging low in the horizon, they arrived at their destination. The stone, square Pokémon Center near the center of the city managed to look friendly despite its unyielding look, and so with a sigh of relief Felix stepped inside.

Mal set his bags and Sonia's on the floor by the entrance and walked briskly up to the Nurse Joy of Pewter City, Zorua asleep and cradled in his arms while Teddi and Su Lin stayed close to his legs. "I'd like to report a missing person: a Pokémon trainer," he said.

"Of course, dear. What's their name?" Nurse Joy replied, turning to her computer.

"Sonia Darkin."

The nurse typed in the name and her eyes darted back and forth as she read. Her eyes widened just a little. "She's… a Grade Alpha Psychic."

Raphael whirled around to stare at Nurse Joy and Mal both. He looked absolutely shocked.

"Yes, ma'am." Mal replied after a little while.

"Okay, uh, um… where did you see her last?"

"This morning on in Viridian Forest. We were on our way to Pewter when…" He swallowed, but his voice remained steady. "When agents of Team Rocket ambushed us, subdued our Pokémon, and knocked her out. They used their own Psychic to hold us back and teleport away with her."

The fear was evident in her eyes now. "I… see. Wait here, dear; I have to make a call to Officer Jenny."

A hand tapped Felix's shoulder. He turned to see Raphael behind him, still stone-faced and vigilant. "Let's get unpacked. Mal can handle this."

Felix frowned. "I accept that you didn't need to worry about Sonia on the trail, but now we're in Pewter and you still don't want to try and help her?"

Raphael twitched. "Only one of us has to relay the message, and we're obviously going to get _another_ round of police questioning here in easily under half an hour, so anything I say now I'll just repeat then. And once that's over with, the last thing we're going to want to do is unpack everything we need to get to bed. I'm not being unhelpful; I'm actually trying to get everyone working where they're most effective. Now let's go."

Raphael turned to go and Felix began to follow, but then he stopped. "Wait, Raph! We haven't gotten our rooms yet!"

Raphael paused and looked to Nurse Joy, who was still talking to Mal. He swore under his breath and stalked to a comfy bench by the window, tossing his backpack on the table. His Eevee jumped up on and sat by the bag, but like their trainer they looked tense. Felix walked up to sit beside him, Cascade close behind. They switched off Egg duty as Raphael let out a sigh, eyes shifting as he looked out into space.

It finally registered with him. "You're really freaking out, huh?" Felix ventured.

"I'm not freaking out; I'm just trying to stay on top of everything."

"Dude, you're more tense than a Farfetch'd without a leek! It's okay, though." He laughed half-heartedly. "I'm pushing away so much terror right now."

Raphael grunted in response, his eyes still sweeping through his thoughts.

Mal walked up. "We have to go to the police station to get the investigation properly started. Let's go now so we don't wait, okay?"

Raphael groaned as he stood and swung his bag over his shoulder again. "Of course we do. Stupid, useless, police."

Felix frowned, standing as well. "They're our best shot at finding Sonia, aren't they?"

"More like a necessary evil," Mal grumbled. The ice in his voice surprised Felix.

"Whatever. We don't have time for this." Raphael was already striding towards the door. "Let's go, everyone."

Anxiety gnawed at Felix. He would have felt hopeful to have the police on the case, but given his friends' reactions… He shook his head. They were probably just as worried about Sonia as he was. Even Raph, despite their disagreements. Holding onto that thought, that even Raphael cared about Sonia enough to worry for her safety, he followed Mal out the door.

Cascade sat half-asleep and slumped against the stone wall of the police office as the group waited outside. Raphael had suggested that everyone get the story straight before they go in stammering and backtracking.

"It's sort of a blur, but from what I remember Team Rocket jumped down from the trees, Odette pinned all of us to trees on the opposite side of the trail, Elekid paralyzed your Eevee and Cascade, and Zubat grabbed Teddi and Su Lin. Fred and Grant held Sonia down and Janette knocked her out with a punch, then they all teleported away." Mal stroked the still-sleeping Zorua, worry starting to crack through his stoic mask.

"Odette said she'd mess with Sonia's head, make her love Team Rocket. Also, Koffing poisoned Cascade; it wasn't Elekid." Felix looked down at his Egg, doing his best to recall the scene without freaking out.

"Zorua was kicked aside by Janette as well, and don't mention the mental conditioning threat; she'd be on a watch list for life if she was suspected of becoming a sleeper agent." Raphael added.

"Okay, got it." Felix nodded, looking out at Mt. Moon.

"Is that all?" Mal asked.

"I think so," Raphael said slowly. Then he shouted, "Hey! Get back here!"

Felix whirled around to see Raphael and Lune sprinting after a man in shabby clothing-running away with Felix's backpack. His heart began to thud and he moved to run as well, but Mal held him back. "Raph's got him; it'd be best not to get in his way."

Lune caught up first and jumped up on the thief's shoulder to bite his ear with a snarl. He yelped and faltered, which let Raphael catch up. In one fluid motion Raph punched him in the gut and swept his feet out from under him, falling atop him in the process. The moment they were down, the trainer already had all of his opponent's limbs pinned, and Lune had given his cheeks a good clawing. Raphael pulled Felix's backpack away, which gave the thief enough leverage to stand, but the moment he was up Raph kicked him sharply in the back and he collapsed again, wheezing and writhing as he struggled to get up.

But that was enough for Raphael, as he allowed the thief to run off as Raphael returned Felix's belongings.

"I might have gone a little too far," he muttered as Felix accepted the bag with shaking hands. Raphael seemed more relaxed even as Felix became equally more nervous. "But _Arceus_ , that felt good."

Felix glanced around. Where were the police and Officer Jenny? Couldn't they see the robber through the door, the windows? They were literally right outside the police station!

Mal snorted as he looked around. "Let's just head inside now."

Felix roused Cascade and followed the others inside. He spotted Officer Jenny walking into the lobby and he ran up to her. "Officer Jenny!" he exclaimed. "A thief just tried to rob me! Right outside here!"

She seemed unconcerned, for some reason. "Did he steal anything?"

"Well, no, my friend stopped him—"

Suddenly Raphael facepalmed. "Dammit, why did I let him go? Sorry, Felix."

"So there's no problem," Officer Jenny nevertheless dismissed.

"But—" Felix was at a loss for words. "Aren't you— aren't you concerned that there are thieves right outside your station?!"

"There are thieves everywhere, unfortunately. We just can't spare the resources to catch them all. Consider yourself lucky, kid, and hold on to your stuff better in the future."

Felix gaped a little and turned back to Raphael and Mal. They seemed as nonchalant about the situation as Officer Jenny. He turned back to the policewoman, but all he could do was stammer.

"Just let it go, Felix," Raphael said, clapping him on the shoulder. "She's right, unfortunately. And sorry, again. I was just so intent on hurting the guy I didn't think to turn him in."

"Ma'am, we're here for another reason," Mal spoke up, approaching as well. "A friend of ours was kidnapped; we know the perpetrators' names and appearances, we know they're part of Team Rocket, and we were witnesses to the kidnapping itself."

Officer Jenny nodded, her expression hardening a little. "I see. Come to the front desk; we'll get some paperwork out of the way and then we'll get your official statements."

The process took a while. First there was the forms and signatures for each of them, then a sketch artist drew up the Team Rocket mercenaries, and only after they had confirmed a sketch of all four of them were they called in one at a time for an interview with Officer Jenny.

Felix stammered over himself in his interview and apologized profusely for his nervousness, but the woman was patient with him and with time he had his story straight and fully explained. He was so close to mentioning Odette's threat to brainwash Sonia, but he cut himself off at her promise not to target the boys.

Felix was led back to the front office as Mal was called in last for his interview, giving him and Raphael some time to talk as their Pokémon fawned for petting.

Felix began, "Okay, really, are you not as freaked out as I am that a thief nearly stole all my stuff _right outside_ the police station? How did nobody see that?"

"The police are understaffed and…" He glanced at the receptionist and dropped his voice a little. "And they're kind of useless. Call me cynical, but I'm not entirely sure they're getting Sonia back in time."

"In time? What?"

"It's only nine days until she's arrested."

" _What?_ "

"You know, if she checked in this morning. I think she did…"

"What are you talking about? Sonia hasn't done anything wrong!"

"You didn't know? Her 'crime', if you want to call it that, is being a freaking _Grade Alpha_ Psychic. There's a law in Kanto that says if you're Psychic you have to check in with a government building like a Pokémon Center every so often, so they can keep tabs on you if you go rogue. For _Alphas_ , it's every ten days." He started mumbling something about Sonia and Alphas; he looked upset.

"That's awful!" Felix gasped. "She's on permanent probation with a spotless record?"

"It keeps people safe and secure, though," Raphael grumbled, giving Felix a serious look. "You know the sort of terror a Psychic like _her_ can wreak, right?"

"Sonia would never!"

"I'm not saying she would, but there are many who have. You know Matilda White, right?"

The name rang a bell. "Uhh… kinda?"

Raph's eyes widened. "The child psycopath and Grade Alpha Sinnoan Psychic? Who has over two dozen kills and hundreds of injuries to her name? Who's _still at large in eastern Sinnoh_?!"

"Oh, yeah, her! I live in western Sinnoh; Floaroma Town, remember? And besides, Matilda's messed up in the head. Not like every Psychic is like that."

Raphael sighed. "You're hopeless, you know that? Natalia the Chessmaster. The Kumiho Harem. …Desiree Tessera. All extremely dangerous Psychics from all over the regions, many of whom were totally normal people until they just snapped one day. You can't deny they exist."

"But do you really have to punish totally innocent psychics for their crimes? You don't force trainers to check in to the Pokémon Center every ten days just because someone used a Pokémon in a crime!"

"Felix, do you know what can make a psychic go rogue?"

"Er… whatever it is that makes criminals criminals?"

"Almost anything. A triggering comment. Too much physical contact. Getting tired of controlling their emotions. It's sort of like they're walking, talking, highly unstable bombs. Whether they mean to or not, that much power crammed into a human being is extremely difficult to control, and a lot of Psychics just give up. So if police can know exactly where they've been and ideally where they still are, the moment a Psychic goes off-radar it's easy to track them down before they hurt too many people."

Felix shook his head. "That… that doesn't seem right. A hug can make Sonia kill someone? I don't believe it."

"Sonia seems pretty stable, especially for a Grade Alpha, but there's always that chance. Trust me, it's just better for everyone if we can keep tabs on Psychics. You could say it's the price they pay for power, maybe."

"But Sonia's going to go to jail for being _kidnapped_? That's awful!"

"I agree, it's not fair to her. Hopefully we can find her before then, and if not hopefully the judge is kind to her situation. But…" He sighed. "I'll be honest, there's a lot of people that think the only place for Alpha Psychics is a prison cell."

"That law needs to go…"

Raphael shook his head. "It made psychic crime rates plummet. Maybe it needs tweaking, but it's important. A necessary evil, maybe."

Felix swallowed. Today was just not his day. "I… I just want Sonia to be okay."

Raphael grunted and nodded.

It was half an hour before Mal returned. Near the end of it Felix started to get impatient on top of his worry; it had only taken him fifteen minutes to tell his full story, and that was including all his stammering and apologies.

Raphael stood the moment Mal was back in the office. "Hey, welcome back! What took you so long?"

"Oh, Officer Jenny and I took care of the rest of the case filing," he explained, looking more relaxed than he had since they got to Pewter. Zorua was awake on his shoulder, but she was quiet and relatively still. "I think we're done here. Right?" He looked to the policewoman for confirmation, and she nodded, smiling.

"We'll take it from here, boys," she promised. "Rest assured we'll do everything we can to find Miss Darkin."

"Okay, thank you so much!" Felix exclaimed, getting up with Cascade. He held his bag a lot tighter this time around. He felt relieved; his friends could be cynical all they wanted, but he trusted the police to do the right thing and do the job they were trained to do.

...Hopefully.

That night, Felix sat at a Pokémon Center computer watching videos of Brock battling both with his personal team and his gym team. He might not be as strong as the Elite Four, but Arceus he was still scary. His Rock-types would not budge for anything, and all of them hit like a truck. Granted, the team he battled trainers like Felix and Raph with already held back— a _lot_ — but still the breeder watched as overconfident teams were swiftly decimated, a wake-up call to how challenging a journey could be.

Claws scratched into his head as a Zorua pounced on him from above. Felix yelped and reached for her, but she had already jumped off onto the keyboard, indiscriminately pushing buttons while cackling madly.

"H-hey!" Felix exclaimed, trying to grab her yet again. Despite being barely a foot away, she dodged him and descended to the floor, taunting him about how horrible he was at catching Pokémon, how he'd never learn, and so forth.

Felix smiled to himself but kept up the act, growling irately as he jumped from his chair… and promptly fell face-first into the computer desk. The crafty fox had tied his shoelaces to the chair while he was focused on the videos. He could barely figure out how she did that without opposable fingers.

Zorua burst out laughing, rolling on her back with paws kicking the air. She continued jeering Felix as he struggled to reach around and untie himself, only for Cascade to sneak up behind her and spray a Water Gun directly into her face. Zorua squeaked and scrambled to her paws to throw herself at the Buizel in a flurry of paws and fluff, giving Felix time to get himself untangled from the chair.

Felix threw himself on otter and fox, successfully pulling a sopping wet Zorua off Cascade and holding her tight in his hands. "That's enough outta you, Zorua!" he said in a stern voice, grinning madly from the fun of it all. "How about we call it a truce for tonight? I'll slip you one of Mal's cookies if you're good!" He winked.

Zorua gasped and wagged her fluffy tail, then sighed and relaxed. _Ohh, you'd better, zoru! Or tomorrow you'll be wishing I only tied you to a chair, zoru._ She snickered.

"Of course, of course!" Felix nodded and pet her head. The poor girl. Her trainer was kidnapped while she was dazed and bruised in a bush just a dozen feet away. She hadn't even seen it go down; one moment she was walking beside Sonia, the next Mal was treating her injuries with Sonia nowhere to be found.

Her pranks had picked up as well. This was Felix's second time today getting tricked, while Mal and Raphael had both found their outfits stinking of fox urine when they stepped out of the shower. Cascade had gotten messed with almost constantly, which did grate on the breeder a little. But he couldn't be too harsh on her; this was how she vented.

They were all venting in their own ways, he supposed. Felix just tried to pretend it didn't happen as best he could; Raphael was working out and training with his Eevee; Mal was stress baking with the bears; and Kai… was with Mal. The Sawk had spoken since Mal released him, but he quietly accepted the offer to bake some cookies with the boy.

 _So what now, zoru? I doubt you and your stupid otter are any fun without pranks…_ She sniffed in disdain.

"Come on, give us a chance!" Felix insisted and hugged her close, to her indignant complaints of him smelling terrible. So Felix relented and set her down at a table while he stretched out on the cushioned bench that stretched along its length, the lights of the city visible through the window just behind him. "So I've been thinking, why don't you have a proper name? You don't see any humans named 'Human', do you?"

 _I do have a proper name, zoru!_ she replied with a huff. _My name is Zorua, Mr. Smelly Breeder Human! Zoru!_

Felix was about to nod, but then he had an idea. Time to get a little payback… "No, that just won't work. Zorua can't be a name; it's the name of your own species! Why don't we call you Zoroark for now, and then switch back to Zorua once you evolve?"

Zorua burst out laughing. _You're stupider than I thought, zoru! Because that is easily one of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard, zorua!_

"Hmm, you could be right." Felix feigned pondering and indifference. "Okay, how about Zara? Or Ark! Ark would be pretty once you evolve."

 _Ehh, no no no, zoru. Zara is also a stupid name, and Ark sound like a boy's name, zoru!_ She stuck her tongue out in disgust.

"A boy's name?" Felix couldn't help but laugh at that. "How?"

 _Zorua things, zoru._ She waved him off with a paw. _Smelly breeders wouldn't understand, zoru._

"Oh, whatever. Well, let's see…" Another pause for thought. "Zorro? Vixey? Midnight? Kage?"

 _No, no, no! Zorua, zoru!_

"Darkie? Kitsu? Yako?"

 _Arrgh! Listen to me, already! Zoru!_ She put her paws up on his cheeks to glare directly into his eyes.

"Raphael? Felix? They're ready," Mal called into the lobby softly, while Teddi and Su Lin both proudly carried a tray of fresh cookies.

Zorua went from angry to excited in a heartbeat and she looked to Felix pleadingly, tail wagging.

Felix smiled and nodded slowly, then leaned close to her and murmured, "I was only messing with you, Zorua. And you totally fell for it!" Felix stood up and walked towards Mal, leaving behind a shocked Zorua, her jaw agape. Still, Felix held to his word and got a cookie for Zorua in addition to his own.

...Which, as he chased the sugar-crazed Zorua through the hallways of the dorms that night, he regretted with every fiber of his being.


End file.
